Broadcom to Acquire Global Locate, Inc., a Provider of Industry-Leading GPS Chips and Software
location based services
Broadcom Enters Fast-Growing GPS Market with Single-Chip Solutions Targeted at Personal Navigation Devices and Mobile PhonesIRVINE, Calif. and SAN JOSE, Calif., June 12, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Global Locate, Inc., a privately-held, fabless provider of industry-leading global positioning system (GPS) and assisted GPS (A-GPS) semiconductor products and software. GPS is expected to join Bluetooth® and similar wireless technologies as a pervasive feature in next generation mobile devices. Global Locate's semiconductor solutions are used in mobile phones from leading cellular handset makers and incorporated into products from TomTom NV, the largest personal navigation device (PND) vendor in the world.
GPS products and location based services (LBS) are increasing in popularity with consumers and cellular service providers as both take advantage of the ability to identify exact geographical location by means of faint radio signals transmitted from a system of orbiting satellites. Growing consumer interest in these applications is driving the GPS chip market, which is expected to grow to $1.07 billion annually by 2012 according to market research firm Forward Concepts. The latest generation of PNDs provides location, points of interest and turn-by-turn navigation, features that are attracting increasing adoption among consumers. Cellular service providers also plan to incorporate GPS chips in mobile phones to meet government regulations for emergency 911 calls and to increase their average revenue per user (ARPU) with location based services.
Broadcom expects the demand for GPS devices to increase dramatically as the deployment of GPS in mobile phones increases. Combining Global Locate's GPS technology with Broadcom's leading Bluetooth, Wi-Fi®, cellular and other mobile technologies will provide leading handset makers with wireless connectivity solutions that add significant value to feature and smart phone products.
Global Locate has focused on GPS chip and navigation technology since it was founded in 1999. The company is currently producing its third generation of GPS chips and has developed a worldwide GPS reference network that provides assistance data to its A-GPS-equipped chips via cellular data channels (GPRS or 3G), boosting performance and reducing the time required to determine a location by up to 100 times.
"With the acquisition of Global Locate, Broadcom will be the only semiconductor supplier in the world with top-tier customers in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, FM radio and GPS, four of the key wireless technologies now being added to next generation mobile phones," said Robert A. Rango, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Wireless Connectivity Group. "We are also pleased to add Global Locate's strong patent portfolio of over 175 issued and pending U.S. and foreign patents to our already robust patent portfolio."
"The combination of Global Locate's navigation expertise with Broadcom's well-known leadership in CMOS RF technology will enable Broadcom to develop a new generation of standalone GPS chips as well as GPS chips that incorporate other wireless standards, accelerating the adoption of GPS into all sorts of consumer devices," said Scott D. Pomerantz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Global Locate. "Joining with Broadcom and its leading position in wireless technologies like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, we can accelerate the penetration of Global Locate's GPS technology into mobile phones and at the same time accelerate the penetration of Broadcom's other wireless products into personal navigation devices."
Product Details
Global Locate's solutions are ideal for high volume GPS-enabled products like PNDs and cellular phone handsets where navigation performance and high sensitivity needs are coupled with requirements for low power consumption and small form factors. While many existing GPS solutions consist of two separate chips, a separate baseband and radio, Global Locate has integrated both into a single-chip CMOS product.
Global Locate offers products specifically optimized to add GPS cost effectively as a feature in devices such as mobile phones. In cellular applications where a wireless network connection is available, Global Locate's products can also access assistance data to enable more rapid "time to fix" performance. For example, traditional GPS can take as long as several minutes to determine location in the best conditions, but with Global Locate's assistance data, that time can be reduced to just a few seconds.
The acquisition also includes Global Locate's innovative World Wide Reference Network (WWRN) providing real time A-GPS data as well as Long-Term Orbit (LTO) solutions to provide assistance even when a network connection is not available. Several carriers, including one of the most widely used A-GPS networks in North America, have adopted Global Locate's A-GPS server solution to provide location based services, which dramatically increases their revenue per usage metrics.
Broadcom's Wireless Connectivity Group has been one of the company's fastest growing businesses over the last three years. This growth has been driven by the adoption of Bluetooth in mobile phones, the proliferation of Wi-Fi technology in the home, and the expansion of Voice over IP (VoIP) services by telecommunications carriers. Broadcom anticipates that GPS will be a significant growth driver for its wireless connectivity business as GPS is adopted in mobile phones and other consumer devices.
Transaction Details
In connection with the acquisition, Broadcom expects to pay approximately $146 million net in cash at closing in exchange for all outstanding shares of capital stock and other rights of Global Locate. A portion of the consideration payable to the stockholders of Global Locate will be placed into escrow pursuant to the terms of the acquisition agreement. Additional consideration of up to $80 million in cash will be reserved for future payment to the former holders of Global Locate capital stock and other rights upon satisfaction of certain performance goals. The boards of directors of both companies have approved the merger. The closing, which is expected to occur during Broadcom's third quarter ending September 30, remains subject to customary closing conditions. Broadcom may record a one-time charge for purchased in-process research and development expenses when the closing occurs. The amount of that charge, if any, has not yet been determined.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art, system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything®.
Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2006 revenue of $3.67 billion, and holds over 2,000 U.S. and 800 foreign patents, more than 6,000 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video and data.
Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 or at http://www.broadcom.com.
About Global Locate, Inc.
Global Locate, Inc. is a privately-held company that provides GPS semiconductor products and software for mobile phones, personal navigation devices and networks. The company has more than 175 U.S. & foreign patents issued or pending relating to GPS and assisted GPS (A-GPS) technology, and its product suite includes Hammerhead®, the world's first commercial single-die GPS receiver. Global Locate is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. with offices in the New York metropolitan area, Tokyo, Taipei and Madrid.
Safe Harbor Statement under
Thursday, June 14, 2007
The 'Building Block' Approach to Location-Based Services
For any traveler searching for a gas station or restaurant while “armed” only with a mobile phone or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) with wireless capability, Location-Based Services (LBSs) have proved to be a technological blessing. These are interactive wireless IP services that use geographic information to serve a mobile user via the user’s mobile device, the location of which is broadcast periodically. An LBS can help the user answer such questions as: Where am I? What is nearby? How can I go to…?
LBSs are made possible by combining cellular technology, the Internet and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) utilizing spatial databases. An infrastructure capable of supporting this mélange of systems is generally made up of mobile devices (PDAs, mobile phones, laptops, car navigation unit, etc.), a communication network, a positioning component (Global Positioning System or GPS), a service/application provider and a back-end data/content provider (database).
To create such LBSs would normally take a considerable amount of time. Obviously, building an LBS would benefit highly from a modular approach involving inexpensive, well-tested “building blocks” assembled into whatever network elements are necessary, thus speeding up a service’s time-to-market, giving the service provider a competitive edge and boosting its revenue.
This is precisely the approach suggested by the Dialogic (News - Alert) Corporation in its white paper, “Grow Revenue and Reduce Time to Market with Dialogic Building Blocks; Location Based Services.”Most major network elements consist of backplanes and the circuit boards (and mezzanine or “daughterboards”) that are plugged into them. Dialogic has been at the forefront of such hardware designs since the late 1980s — indeed, the company has been something of a bellwether for the entire telecom hardware component industry — and it now provides an enormous variety of modular building blocks for LBS including compute, packet, and media processing boards; switches; chassis management modules; and accessories.
Such “building block” products for service providers should always be carrier-grade, high-density, NEBS-3/ETSI (News - Alert)-compliant computing solutions, and capable of both high availability and hot swappability (the ability to replace the component while it is running).
Building LBSs based on building blocks such as Dialogic’s becomes a very enticing proposition when time-to-market is of vital importance and a provider’s engineering resources are constrained or nonexistent. Classic service providers and network operators in general will doubtless be forced to simplify their efforts via these “building blocks” so that they can quickly develop and deploy a legion of exiting new, revenue-generating — and customer churn-reducing — IP-based services for business and residential markets.
-----
Richard Grigonis is an internationally-known technology editor and writer. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert), he was the Editor-in-Chief of VON Magazine from its founding in 2003 to August 2006. He also served as the Chief Technical Editor of CMP Media’s Computer Telephony magazine (later called CommunicationsConvergence from its first year of operation in 1994 until 2003. In addition, he has written five books on computers and telecom (including the Computer Telephony Encyclopedia and Dictionary of IP Communications). To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s Whitepaper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers whitepapers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.
For any traveler searching for a gas station or restaurant while “armed” only with a mobile phone or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) with wireless capability, Location-Based Services (LBSs) have proved to be a technological blessing. These are interactive wireless IP services that use geographic information to serve a mobile user via the user’s mobile device, the location of which is broadcast periodically. An LBS can help the user answer such questions as: Where am I? What is nearby? How can I go to…?
LBSs are made possible by combining cellular technology, the Internet and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) utilizing spatial databases. An infrastructure capable of supporting this mélange of systems is generally made up of mobile devices (PDAs, mobile phones, laptops, car navigation unit, etc.), a communication network, a positioning component (Global Positioning System or GPS), a service/application provider and a back-end data/content provider (database).
To create such LBSs would normally take a considerable amount of time. Obviously, building an LBS would benefit highly from a modular approach involving inexpensive, well-tested “building blocks” assembled into whatever network elements are necessary, thus speeding up a service’s time-to-market, giving the service provider a competitive edge and boosting its revenue.
This is precisely the approach suggested by the Dialogic (News - Alert) Corporation in its white paper, “Grow Revenue and Reduce Time to Market with Dialogic Building Blocks; Location Based Services.”Most major network elements consist of backplanes and the circuit boards (and mezzanine or “daughterboards”) that are plugged into them. Dialogic has been at the forefront of such hardware designs since the late 1980s — indeed, the company has been something of a bellwether for the entire telecom hardware component industry — and it now provides an enormous variety of modular building blocks for LBS including compute, packet, and media processing boards; switches; chassis management modules; and accessories.
Such “building block” products for service providers should always be carrier-grade, high-density, NEBS-3/ETSI (News - Alert)-compliant computing solutions, and capable of both high availability and hot swappability (the ability to replace the component while it is running).
Building LBSs based on building blocks such as Dialogic’s becomes a very enticing proposition when time-to-market is of vital importance and a provider’s engineering resources are constrained or nonexistent. Classic service providers and network operators in general will doubtless be forced to simplify their efforts via these “building blocks” so that they can quickly develop and deploy a legion of exiting new, revenue-generating — and customer churn-reducing — IP-based services for business and residential markets.
-----
Richard Grigonis is an internationally-known technology editor and writer. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert), he was the Editor-in-Chief of VON Magazine from its founding in 2003 to August 2006. He also served as the Chief Technical Editor of CMP Media’s Computer Telephony magazine (later called CommunicationsConvergence from its first year of operation in 1994 until 2003. In addition, he has written five books on computers and telecom (including the Computer Telephony Encyclopedia and Dictionary of IP Communications). To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s Whitepaper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers whitepapers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
The iPhone as a GPS/SatNav
13 Jun, 2007 Mobile, Google Maps, GPS, Hardware, LBS
You may have seen the latest Steve Jobs WWDC Keynote and iPhone adverts and be wondering about how good it will perform as a GPS device (as you would any modern mobile phone) or for Location Based Services (LBS).
A lot of people are looking forward to the release of the iPhone, and I guess only time will tell as to how it performs, but I can see some things which may backfire with the fully online (or at least that’s what it seems) platform.
Steve hasn’t mentioned anything about GPS support within the iPhone, but I don’t see it not having support.
Unless there are some sophisticated caching mechanisms, maps are going to be unavailable in areas of low mobile network coverage.
Points of Interest appear built into the phone are most probably the normal Google Maps, and possibly not very customisable.
Other POIs are capable through the web browser, with AJAX these websites can appear as if they are native applications on the phone, but only through clicking on an address/location of some sort to trigger the Google Maps view of that point.
I hope to be proven wrong, but those are my reservations. If I am proven correct, this would surely be a major issue for anyone (like myself) who uses GPS/GIS in anger. Any ideas?
location based services
13 Jun, 2007 Mobile, Google Maps, GPS, Hardware, LBS
You may have seen the latest Steve Jobs WWDC Keynote and iPhone adverts and be wondering about how good it will perform as a GPS device (as you would any modern mobile phone) or for Location Based Services (LBS).
A lot of people are looking forward to the release of the iPhone, and I guess only time will tell as to how it performs, but I can see some things which may backfire with the fully online (or at least that’s what it seems) platform.
Steve hasn’t mentioned anything about GPS support within the iPhone, but I don’t see it not having support.
Unless there are some sophisticated caching mechanisms, maps are going to be unavailable in areas of low mobile network coverage.
Points of Interest appear built into the phone are most probably the normal Google Maps, and possibly not very customisable.
Other POIs are capable through the web browser, with AJAX these websites can appear as if they are native applications on the phone, but only through clicking on an address/location of some sort to trigger the Google Maps view of that point.
I hope to be proven wrong, but those are my reservations. If I am proven correct, this would surely be a major issue for anyone (like myself) who uses GPS/GIS in anger. Any ideas?
Few Words About Location Based Services on Symbian Phones
Jul 08, 2006 at 11:07 AM EEST
I'm thinking about utilizing much more from cell and location information available on Symbian phones than it's done in any current application. Based on information I have, and I hope you'll correct me if I'm doing wrong, with today's public Symbian OS API we looking through keyhole into room full of treasure - possible amazing applications - but we haven't key to open the door - we're missing proper API to access the NMR (Network Measurement Results) data...
From the time I decided start development on Symbian platform I heard from numerous people similar questions related to the Symbian GSM location functionality and to be honest every time I answered them I was not really sure what to say. I will not try to describe here GPS, E-OTD or other advanced systems, which needs additional support from phone device SIM card (SIM Toolkit solution), MS or network hardware or software upgrade. Those systems are not available to everybody today and solution driven by operators (with the problem that they could vary across the world) will never allow to single developers to participate in. Let's aim our effort only to abilities of normal smart phone available on the market. Crucial question we had to answer and I hope once again, you can help me is: Even if will have all NMR available on the phone, will we be able to measure mobile position with 10 meters in micro and pico cells areas up to 100 meters in large areas covered by one BTS? There is a lot of materials describing mathematical models (quite difficult to understand:) and theory, but how it's in practice?
Reality is that every mobile phone user can easily search the Internet for information about "Net monitor" or "Field test" applications, which were in different ways hidden somewhere on the phone, before normal blind users. Those application were not useful for masses, but they at least show us what could be monitored by the phone API, because there was always someone enough skilful, who found how to activate and run those hidden menus (on older phones) or standalone applications (on some Symbian devices) and reveal this secret to others. Let's left out for now question if such activity is legal or not. In any case result of those activities is that it's clear to all programmers that applications developed by phone manufacturer could have access to the information up to six or more neighbors cells and can obtain data about signal strength and others from the mobile network. More precisely it was known of course, that GSM device must have access to such information, but those applications show how easily it can be done and put into life many new ideas, how to use them.
Awareness of location is important part of context sensitive services, actually it is probably major factor comparing to other information as temperature, biometrics, etc. I personally think that information about six cells reception levels (signal strength), their CellId or BSIC (code is at all times transmitted on the broadcast channel, so the Mobile Stations can distinguish between base stations) possibly enhanced with access to the database with measured BTSs' GPS coordinates, measurement maps of their coverage areas and information about their power, could be input for more or less exact algorithm for estimate mobile position. Especially in the case of micro or picocells the information can be quite accurate. The signal strength is affected of course by terrain profile and building construction, but measurement map could help to solve the problem. Additionally also TA, but only in large areas (Timing Advance - because of different distance between MS and BTS, this value counted by BTS is used for synchronization when data bursts are send from MS to BTS) could be used for measure the distance from BTS. All mentioned information are available on GSM phones and the maps and databases could grow rapidly if there'll be demand for them. We cannot expect that operators will give us the information about their network, which is considered as sensitive information to be kept in secret, but groups of BTS hunters collect such information (this activity is naturally legal) and put them into freely available databases. Keep also in mind that a notable part of location based mobile application could be used only locally (i.e. Madrid tourist mobile guide), so it decrease demands on databases size and its costs.
Let's now have a look on the most obvious examples of location based services: Determination of your small child movement, triggering action with the fact of leaving predefined cell, downloading SVG map with you position marked on, navigation and guide for tourists in foreign cities, location based games, location of the nearest fitness, car service or restaurant, emergency and law services, collection statistical information, monitoring company truck drivers, etc. Doesn't it sound interestingly? The accuracy (average about 100m) of cell based position is not comparable to GPS solutions of course, there will be still some doubt on exact position, especially in the macro cell areas covered by powerful BTS, but on the other side GSM signal is available also inside buildings and heavy developed city centers, tunnels and other places, where its precision increase rapidly and where GPS cannot be used. If anyone try to monitor how fast are BTS handling the phone changing in the centre of the city, will probably agree with me that having such information could be quite useful.
Unfortunately having similar functionality as the mentioned "Net monitor" application and using it in some reasonable way is not possible, because necessary API is missing. There were some tries to reverse engineer the way how this built-in application works, but for the first I'm not sure if this is legal and for the second it failed on newer devices and it cannot be referred as general solution. I don't know why cell related information are not available for developers. Due to some information I found on Internet, network providers made complaints to phone manufacturers on easy "Net monitor" enabling, so users could measure signal strength, and consequently similar applications were removed from phones, additionally operators provide their own location based solutions and probably they want to competition, who knows?
For all of that if you search Internet you'll find plenty of small products, which use cell information as CellTrack, MiniGPS, CellSpotting or popular game called Journey. You can find also many projects and hundreds of pages, studies related to this topic.
Maybe some of you wonder how applications listed in previous paragraph work, when I already said that cell monitoring is not possible? Well, there were many Symbian SDKs available in the past and putting together header files from old Nokia 9200 with export libraries from Sendo X makes possible use API for getting information about current serving cell. This approach still works with the 8.0a FP2 SDK, but I expect that on the newer Symbian v9.1 it won't be possible, but I didn't test it yet and I also didn't check if there isn't any new method how get similar information.
Now if you read my article to this point, please try to give me the answer why location related information are hidden and are not part of public API or just put write your opinion.
Thanks for reading.
-- Petr Mazanec (stenlik)
Post A Comment
Comments:
Jul 10, 2006 at 11:17 AM EEST
Posted by Paul Coulton
Petr The main problem with EOTD is that at least three synchronised measurement are required to complete triangulation. As GSM an asycnhronus there has no common time base making the three measurements impossible. This is why the cellular system requires an upgrade to include Location Measurement Units (LMUs) that will provide this base. You are correct the software is ready but we will have to wait for the operators to implement. They are already using a system for CDMAone but this is because it is already synchronous. The disadvantage of using a purely power based measurement is that is that the readings will be affected by speed of the mobile user and will thus change for user to user not to mention operator. Also as we are using FDD they uplink will be different from the downlink and thus increases complexity. LBS is a fascinating area but highly complex in terms of solutions at the moment it would seem we will have a long wait for EOTD to be available on a wide scale for GSM but I hope I am proved wrong
-- Paul Coulton AKA Mystic Monkey www.mobileradicals.com
Jul 08, 2006 at 11:07 AM EEST
I'm thinking about utilizing much more from cell and location information available on Symbian phones than it's done in any current application. Based on information I have, and I hope you'll correct me if I'm doing wrong, with today's public Symbian OS API we looking through keyhole into room full of treasure - possible amazing applications - but we haven't key to open the door - we're missing proper API to access the NMR (Network Measurement Results) data...
From the time I decided start development on Symbian platform I heard from numerous people similar questions related to the Symbian GSM location functionality and to be honest every time I answered them I was not really sure what to say. I will not try to describe here GPS, E-OTD or other advanced systems, which needs additional support from phone device SIM card (SIM Toolkit solution), MS or network hardware or software upgrade. Those systems are not available to everybody today and solution driven by operators (with the problem that they could vary across the world) will never allow to single developers to participate in. Let's aim our effort only to abilities of normal smart phone available on the market. Crucial question we had to answer and I hope once again, you can help me is: Even if will have all NMR available on the phone, will we be able to measure mobile position with 10 meters in micro and pico cells areas up to 100 meters in large areas covered by one BTS? There is a lot of materials describing mathematical models (quite difficult to understand:) and theory, but how it's in practice?
Reality is that every mobile phone user can easily search the Internet for information about "Net monitor" or "Field test" applications, which were in different ways hidden somewhere on the phone, before normal blind users. Those application were not useful for masses, but they at least show us what could be monitored by the phone API, because there was always someone enough skilful, who found how to activate and run those hidden menus (on older phones) or standalone applications (on some Symbian devices) and reveal this secret to others. Let's left out for now question if such activity is legal or not. In any case result of those activities is that it's clear to all programmers that applications developed by phone manufacturer could have access to the information up to six or more neighbors cells and can obtain data about signal strength and others from the mobile network. More precisely it was known of course, that GSM device must have access to such information, but those applications show how easily it can be done and put into life many new ideas, how to use them.
Awareness of location is important part of context sensitive services, actually it is probably major factor comparing to other information as temperature, biometrics, etc. I personally think that information about six cells reception levels (signal strength), their CellId or BSIC (code is at all times transmitted on the broadcast channel, so the Mobile Stations can distinguish between base stations) possibly enhanced with access to the database with measured BTSs' GPS coordinates, measurement maps of their coverage areas and information about their power, could be input for more or less exact algorithm for estimate mobile position. Especially in the case of micro or picocells the information can be quite accurate. The signal strength is affected of course by terrain profile and building construction, but measurement map could help to solve the problem. Additionally also TA, but only in large areas (Timing Advance - because of different distance between MS and BTS, this value counted by BTS is used for synchronization when data bursts are send from MS to BTS) could be used for measure the distance from BTS. All mentioned information are available on GSM phones and the maps and databases could grow rapidly if there'll be demand for them. We cannot expect that operators will give us the information about their network, which is considered as sensitive information to be kept in secret, but groups of BTS hunters collect such information (this activity is naturally legal) and put them into freely available databases. Keep also in mind that a notable part of location based mobile application could be used only locally (i.e. Madrid tourist mobile guide), so it decrease demands on databases size and its costs.
Let's now have a look on the most obvious examples of location based services: Determination of your small child movement, triggering action with the fact of leaving predefined cell, downloading SVG map with you position marked on, navigation and guide for tourists in foreign cities, location based games, location of the nearest fitness, car service or restaurant, emergency and law services, collection statistical information, monitoring company truck drivers, etc. Doesn't it sound interestingly? The accuracy (average about 100m) of cell based position is not comparable to GPS solutions of course, there will be still some doubt on exact position, especially in the macro cell areas covered by powerful BTS, but on the other side GSM signal is available also inside buildings and heavy developed city centers, tunnels and other places, where its precision increase rapidly and where GPS cannot be used. If anyone try to monitor how fast are BTS handling the phone changing in the centre of the city, will probably agree with me that having such information could be quite useful.
Unfortunately having similar functionality as the mentioned "Net monitor" application and using it in some reasonable way is not possible, because necessary API is missing. There were some tries to reverse engineer the way how this built-in application works, but for the first I'm not sure if this is legal and for the second it failed on newer devices and it cannot be referred as general solution. I don't know why cell related information are not available for developers. Due to some information I found on Internet, network providers made complaints to phone manufacturers on easy "Net monitor" enabling, so users could measure signal strength, and consequently similar applications were removed from phones, additionally operators provide their own location based solutions and probably they want to competition, who knows?
For all of that if you search Internet you'll find plenty of small products, which use cell information as CellTrack, MiniGPS, CellSpotting or popular game called Journey. You can find also many projects and hundreds of pages, studies related to this topic.
Maybe some of you wonder how applications listed in previous paragraph work, when I already said that cell monitoring is not possible? Well, there were many Symbian SDKs available in the past and putting together header files from old Nokia 9200 with export libraries from Sendo X makes possible use API for getting information about current serving cell. This approach still works with the 8.0a FP2 SDK, but I expect that on the newer Symbian v9.1 it won't be possible, but I didn't test it yet and I also didn't check if there isn't any new method how get similar information.
Now if you read my article to this point, please try to give me the answer why location related information are hidden and are not part of public API or just put write your opinion.
Thanks for reading.
-- Petr Mazanec (stenlik)
Post A Comment
Comments:
Jul 10, 2006 at 11:17 AM EEST
Posted by Paul Coulton
Petr The main problem with EOTD is that at least three synchronised measurement are required to complete triangulation. As GSM an asycnhronus there has no common time base making the three measurements impossible. This is why the cellular system requires an upgrade to include Location Measurement Units (LMUs) that will provide this base. You are correct the software is ready but we will have to wait for the operators to implement. They are already using a system for CDMAone but this is because it is already synchronous. The disadvantage of using a purely power based measurement is that is that the readings will be affected by speed of the mobile user and will thus change for user to user not to mention operator. Also as we are using FDD they uplink will be different from the downlink and thus increases complexity. LBS is a fascinating area but highly complex in terms of solutions at the moment it would seem we will have a long wait for EOTD to be available on a wide scale for GSM but I hope I am proved wrong
-- Paul Coulton AKA Mystic Monkey www.mobileradicals.com
Will The Lack Of GPS On The iPhone Make Its Version Of Google Maps
location based services
Useless?Posted by Stephen Wellman, Jun 10, 2007 11:18 PM
The iPhone is the gift that just keeps on giving. This weekend, just when you thought it was safe to go to the beach or have a BBQ, an AT&T manual for the iPhone was leaked. The leaked manual supposedly details all the features of the iPhone. But one feature -- the lack of GPS -- is sending some Mac fans into a frenzy.
Here is a look at the lack of GPS:
- iPhone will not support the TeleNav solutions currently offered by other AT&T devices- GPS is not part of the iPhone feature set.
If this is true, it's really disappointing. AT&T offers a GPS service, called TeleNav, and it's a real shame that the iPhone won't be able to use it, or any other location-based service. U.S. carriers have been flocking to launch GPS and location-based services in the last few months. In fact, just last week Sprint launched a new mobile product search application that uses location.
I had hopes that the iPhone would combine some form of GPS with Google Maps, giving users access to all kinds of new mobile location services. But without GPS or some other form of location, the iPhone simply won't be able to deliver when it comes to location. While that user interface looks cool, how will location searches work? Without GPS users will have to rely on AT&T's EDGE network for data response to search queries, making Google Maps searches much slower.
There are already handsets on the market that combine GPS with Google Maps. For example, Helio's Drift offers Google Maps and a built-in GPS module (and it only costs $225).
Without GPS, the iPhone's version of Google Maps is little better than the desktop version, except that it might be harder to use -- I'll reserve judgment on the iPhone's usability until I actually get my hands on one.
What do you think? Will the lack of GPS impact your decision to buy the iPhone? Or is this rumor without merit?
location based services
Useless?Posted by Stephen Wellman, Jun 10, 2007 11:18 PM
The iPhone is the gift that just keeps on giving. This weekend, just when you thought it was safe to go to the beach or have a BBQ, an AT&T manual for the iPhone was leaked. The leaked manual supposedly details all the features of the iPhone. But one feature -- the lack of GPS -- is sending some Mac fans into a frenzy.
Here is a look at the lack of GPS:
- iPhone will not support the TeleNav solutions currently offered by other AT&T devices- GPS is not part of the iPhone feature set.
If this is true, it's really disappointing. AT&T offers a GPS service, called TeleNav, and it's a real shame that the iPhone won't be able to use it, or any other location-based service. U.S. carriers have been flocking to launch GPS and location-based services in the last few months. In fact, just last week Sprint launched a new mobile product search application that uses location.
I had hopes that the iPhone would combine some form of GPS with Google Maps, giving users access to all kinds of new mobile location services. But without GPS or some other form of location, the iPhone simply won't be able to deliver when it comes to location. While that user interface looks cool, how will location searches work? Without GPS users will have to rely on AT&T's EDGE network for data response to search queries, making Google Maps searches much slower.
There are already handsets on the market that combine GPS with Google Maps. For example, Helio's Drift offers Google Maps and a built-in GPS module (and it only costs $225).
Without GPS, the iPhone's version of Google Maps is little better than the desktop version, except that it might be harder to use -- I'll reserve judgment on the iPhone's usability until I actually get my hands on one.
What do you think? Will the lack of GPS impact your decision to buy the iPhone? Or is this rumor without merit?
Google Mobile Search Ads Coming Sooner Than You Think
location based services
Posted by Stephen Wellman, Jun 13, 2007 06:28 PM
It looks mobile search ads could soon take off in what is arguable the world's most advanced wireless market, South Korea. Looks like mobile search advertising is on its way.
South Korea's largest wireless carrier, SK Telecom, this week said it may launch search ads powered by Google this year:
"We are considering beginning Google's mobile-search ads on our wireless Internet network during the second half of this year," said Yang Yoon-seon, head of SK Telecom's search department.
Since February, SK Telecom, holding more than 20 million mobile phone subscribers in South Korea, has incorporated Google's search engine for its wireless Internet service, but has yet to offer the mobile-search ads.
This is the move everyone in the wireless market has been waiting for. While both Google and Yahoo have been testing mobile search ads, no one really seems to know how well they will perform in an open commercial launch. Earlier this year Google hinted that its mobile ad trials were working well, but there has been little publicly released data to date.
Last month Google upgraded its mobile search checker tool for mobile AdWords clients.
As I argued last month, the biggest obstacle to mobile search advertising is still mobile search:
The third challenge is mobile search -- or the lack thereof. I have had several people try to talk to me about mobile search marketing. This is kind of a challenge since mobile search is still very much an emerging category, much less mobile search marketing.
As we all know the bulk of successful online advertising these days is search-based. It's simple, text link ads on Google and search-based ads are just more relevant. Obviously, marketers are eager to replicate this success on the third screen. But for that to happen, mobile search has to, you know, actually take off. Without viable mobile search, there won't be any mobile search advertising. In a sense, predicting the growth of mobile advertising before mobile search has had a chance to develop is putting the cart before the horse.
On the other hand, we also know that mobile search is beginning to push mobile Web traffic growth. So obviously people are starting to use mobile search.
But we still don't have any market numbers or any real full-blown commercial launches. I suspect that once SK Telecom launches, though, other carriers will follow suit.
What do you think? How long until we see a viable mobile search ad market?
« Mossberg Is Mixed On The iPhone And Its Onscreen Keypad Main Microsoft Lets A Wizard Help Sell More Dynamics »
location based services
Posted by Stephen Wellman, Jun 13, 2007 06:28 PM
It looks mobile search ads could soon take off in what is arguable the world's most advanced wireless market, South Korea. Looks like mobile search advertising is on its way.
South Korea's largest wireless carrier, SK Telecom, this week said it may launch search ads powered by Google this year:
"We are considering beginning Google's mobile-search ads on our wireless Internet network during the second half of this year," said Yang Yoon-seon, head of SK Telecom's search department.
Since February, SK Telecom, holding more than 20 million mobile phone subscribers in South Korea, has incorporated Google's search engine for its wireless Internet service, but has yet to offer the mobile-search ads.
This is the move everyone in the wireless market has been waiting for. While both Google and Yahoo have been testing mobile search ads, no one really seems to know how well they will perform in an open commercial launch. Earlier this year Google hinted that its mobile ad trials were working well, but there has been little publicly released data to date.
Last month Google upgraded its mobile search checker tool for mobile AdWords clients.
As I argued last month, the biggest obstacle to mobile search advertising is still mobile search:
The third challenge is mobile search -- or the lack thereof. I have had several people try to talk to me about mobile search marketing. This is kind of a challenge since mobile search is still very much an emerging category, much less mobile search marketing.
As we all know the bulk of successful online advertising these days is search-based. It's simple, text link ads on Google and search-based ads are just more relevant. Obviously, marketers are eager to replicate this success on the third screen. But for that to happen, mobile search has to, you know, actually take off. Without viable mobile search, there won't be any mobile search advertising. In a sense, predicting the growth of mobile advertising before mobile search has had a chance to develop is putting the cart before the horse.
On the other hand, we also know that mobile search is beginning to push mobile Web traffic growth. So obviously people are starting to use mobile search.
But we still don't have any market numbers or any real full-blown commercial launches. I suspect that once SK Telecom launches, though, other carriers will follow suit.
What do you think? How long until we see a viable mobile search ad market?
« Mossberg Is Mixed On The iPhone And Its Onscreen Keypad Main Microsoft Lets A Wizard Help Sell More Dynamics »
Canalys expands analysis of mobile navigation, mobile Linux and mobile consumer markets
Canalys - June 13, 2007 Canalys has expanded its research and advisory services for technology vendors with three new services: Mobile Navigation Analysis CEMA, Mobile Linux Analysis Worldwide, and Consumer Mobility Analysis EMEA.
The new Mobile Navigation Analysis CEMA service is the company’s second service focusing specifically on the emerging country markets of Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The Mobile Linux Analysis Worldwide service focuses on the rise of Linux within the mobile space and provides detailed market tracking of mobile phones, converged devices and VoIP handsets based on the numerous mobile Linux implementations. In addition to providing quarterly market data and forecasts it looks at the issues influencing the growth of mobile Linux and its potential as the successor to the multitude of proprietary real-time operating systems (RTOS) that permeate the mobile handset world today.
"Market fragmentation, operator platform rationalisation strategies and the activities of the different standards bodies and developer communities are just a few of the factors shaping the market," said Rachel Lashford, Singapore-based Canalys senior analyst. "Most of the Linux handset volume to date has been in Asia, but we are now starting to see more activity in North America and EMEA. The dynamics of the major geographic regions are quite different, and clients will benefit from having market tracking and analysis that is worldwide in scope and can easily be used in conjunction with our smart mobile device research."
The third new service, Consumer Mobility Analysis EMEA, provides clients with perspective on present and future mobility trends. Clients will receive detailed results and analysis of thousands of interviews on a wide range of mobility topics, such as mobile TV, music and video, location-based services (LBS), gaming, IM and e-mail. The surveys also study pre-cursor behaviour on other platforms, purchase influencers, willingness to spend, acceptance of mobile advertising, views on features and brands, and green issues, as well as workplace mobility and work-life balance.
» Story on Analyst Firm Website
location based services
Canalys - June 13, 2007 Canalys has expanded its research and advisory services for technology vendors with three new services: Mobile Navigation Analysis CEMA, Mobile Linux Analysis Worldwide, and Consumer Mobility Analysis EMEA.
The new Mobile Navigation Analysis CEMA service is the company’s second service focusing specifically on the emerging country markets of Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The Mobile Linux Analysis Worldwide service focuses on the rise of Linux within the mobile space and provides detailed market tracking of mobile phones, converged devices and VoIP handsets based on the numerous mobile Linux implementations. In addition to providing quarterly market data and forecasts it looks at the issues influencing the growth of mobile Linux and its potential as the successor to the multitude of proprietary real-time operating systems (RTOS) that permeate the mobile handset world today.
"Market fragmentation, operator platform rationalisation strategies and the activities of the different standards bodies and developer communities are just a few of the factors shaping the market," said Rachel Lashford, Singapore-based Canalys senior analyst. "Most of the Linux handset volume to date has been in Asia, but we are now starting to see more activity in North America and EMEA. The dynamics of the major geographic regions are quite different, and clients will benefit from having market tracking and analysis that is worldwide in scope and can easily be used in conjunction with our smart mobile device research."
The third new service, Consumer Mobility Analysis EMEA, provides clients with perspective on present and future mobility trends. Clients will receive detailed results and analysis of thousands of interviews on a wide range of mobility topics, such as mobile TV, music and video, location-based services (LBS), gaming, IM and e-mail. The surveys also study pre-cursor behaviour on other platforms, purchase influencers, willingness to spend, acceptance of mobile advertising, views on features and brands, and green issues, as well as workplace mobility and work-life balance.
» Story on Analyst Firm Website
TeleNav Adds Social Networking Features and Business Reviews to Mobile GPS Navigation Service
location based services
Sunnyvale, Calif. - June 11, 2007 - TeleNav Inc. today launched its latest version of TeleNav GPS Navigator(tm), the original GPS navigation application for mobile phones. Available immediately, subscribers can now send their current location to any other mobile phone that can receive text messages, creating a quick and easy way to meet with friends or co-workers while on-the-go. Customers can also share addresses of favorite businesses, including restaurants, hotels or movie theaters. With TeleNav's Fuel Finder feature, users can even send information on local gas stations with the cheapest prices for that day. Other new features include reviews and ratings for nearby businesses and the ability to rate restaurants directly from a mobile phone. "Location-based services such as TeleNav GPS Navigator are increasingly more useful and usable, letting mobile subscribers leverage the immediacy and relevancy of the mobile phone to be more productive while on-the-go," said Jill Aldort, Yankee Group's senior analyst of consumer mobility applications. "Information/direction services are one of the top mobile applications that consumers express interest in, and the addition of location sharing and other community features further raises the appeal." TeleNav GPS Navigator originally launched in 2003 and was the first GPS navigation solution for mobile phones, offering the experience of an in-car navigation system with the portability and convenience of a mobile phone. Since launching its original version, TeleNav has continued to expand features to provide customers with many GPS-based solutions and social networking features in one, easy-to-use application. The new version is the only mobile phone-based navigation service to include all of the following features:* Voice and on-screen turn-by-turn driving directions - Customers type in or use voice recognition to call in destinations, and TeleNav GPS Navigator computes the routes. While driving, users get up-to-the minute guidance, including street names, and will automatically be re-routed if a turn is missed. * "My TeleNav" Web site access - It is easy to preplan trips, save addresses and manage your account - all online at www.telenav.com. Subscribers can save locations in their "My Favorites" folder and they will automatically download on their phone next time they launch TeleNav GPS Navigator. * Location sharing* - Now users have the ability to send their current location or the location of a nearby business to one friend or many friends all at once. This information can be sent from a mobile phone or from the "My TeleNav" account on www.telenav.com. TeleNav GPS Navigator users can quickly navigate to locations they receive using the service's turn-by-turn directions. Mobile users not subscribing to TeleNav GPS Navigator will receive a link to view a map and static directions on their phone. * Biz Finder (local search) - Customers can look up more than 10 million businesses and services, including ATMs, restaurants, hotels, Wi-Fi hotspots and gas stations, and easily navigate to them with the click of a button. * Business reviews and ratings* - Before they head to a restaurant or make a reservation at a hotel, users can now see how it was rated and reviewed by other people. Users can sort by highest to lowest rating to help them make a decision, or view all of the search results on a map. TeleNav GPS Navigator also allows customers to rate restaurants themselves - directly from a mobile phone. * Real-time traffic alerts and one-click rerouting -TeleNav GPS Navigator monitors each specific route and will proactively search every five minutes for traffic congestion or incidents. Customers will be alerted, both audibly and on-screen, and can choose to find a faster route to their location by pressing just one button. * Fuel Finder - TeleNav GPS Navigator includes updated gas prices for local gas stations, and provides driving directions to the station with the lowest gas prices. Now, with just one click, friends and colleagues can share locations of these stations with each other as well.** Full-color 3D moving maps - Just like an in-car navigation system, the 3D maps turn, move and stop along with the driver, while also displaying a realistic image of the streets the driver is approaching and passing. Users can also pan and zoom around the map to view surrounding streets. * Spot Marker - Users can mark waypoints to help find their way back to a location or to record points of interest. * Pedestrian Mode -TeleNav GPS Navigator can also be used while walking, to help guide customers through crowded downtown streets or back to a parked car. * My Favorites - Customers can save as many addresses as needed for easy access and directions later. "GPS technology on mobile phones is surpassing standalone GPS devices," said Dr. HP Jin, president, CEO and co-founder of TeleNav. "Not only does TeleNav offer the convenience of GPS navigation on mobile phones, but we include numerous features that are not offered on separate, expensive navigation systems."The new version of TeleNav GPS Navigator (v. 5.2) is available immediately on select phones. The service is offered to customers for $9.99 per month for unlimited use. Current customers using TeleNav GPS Navigator on supported phones can access the new version by re-downloading TeleNav GPS Navigator. For more information on which phones support the new version, please visit www.telenav.com. *Currently only available on TeleNav GPS Navigator v. 5.2. About TeleNav Inc. TeleNav, Inc., headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, was the first company to launch a GPS navigation system on mobile phones in the United States. TeleNav is a global leader in wireless location-based services (LBS), including GPS navigation, Mobile Resource Management (MRM), asset GPS tracking (AVL) and local search. The company's flagship product, TeleNav GPS Navigator(tm), is comparable to in-car systems found in luxury vehicles, but offers a superior experience with functionality such as automatically updated maps and business locations, full color 3D moving maps, traffic alerts and one-click rerouting, speech recognition, Wi-Fi hotspot finder, lowest price fuel finder and more.v
Sear
location based services
Sunnyvale, Calif. - June 11, 2007 - TeleNav Inc. today launched its latest version of TeleNav GPS Navigator(tm), the original GPS navigation application for mobile phones. Available immediately, subscribers can now send their current location to any other mobile phone that can receive text messages, creating a quick and easy way to meet with friends or co-workers while on-the-go. Customers can also share addresses of favorite businesses, including restaurants, hotels or movie theaters. With TeleNav's Fuel Finder feature, users can even send information on local gas stations with the cheapest prices for that day. Other new features include reviews and ratings for nearby businesses and the ability to rate restaurants directly from a mobile phone. "Location-based services such as TeleNav GPS Navigator are increasingly more useful and usable, letting mobile subscribers leverage the immediacy and relevancy of the mobile phone to be more productive while on-the-go," said Jill Aldort, Yankee Group's senior analyst of consumer mobility applications. "Information/direction services are one of the top mobile applications that consumers express interest in, and the addition of location sharing and other community features further raises the appeal." TeleNav GPS Navigator originally launched in 2003 and was the first GPS navigation solution for mobile phones, offering the experience of an in-car navigation system with the portability and convenience of a mobile phone. Since launching its original version, TeleNav has continued to expand features to provide customers with many GPS-based solutions and social networking features in one, easy-to-use application. The new version is the only mobile phone-based navigation service to include all of the following features:* Voice and on-screen turn-by-turn driving directions - Customers type in or use voice recognition to call in destinations, and TeleNav GPS Navigator computes the routes. While driving, users get up-to-the minute guidance, including street names, and will automatically be re-routed if a turn is missed. * "My TeleNav" Web site access - It is easy to preplan trips, save addresses and manage your account - all online at www.telenav.com. Subscribers can save locations in their "My Favorites" folder and they will automatically download on their phone next time they launch TeleNav GPS Navigator. * Location sharing* - Now users have the ability to send their current location or the location of a nearby business to one friend or many friends all at once. This information can be sent from a mobile phone or from the "My TeleNav" account on www.telenav.com. TeleNav GPS Navigator users can quickly navigate to locations they receive using the service's turn-by-turn directions. Mobile users not subscribing to TeleNav GPS Navigator will receive a link to view a map and static directions on their phone. * Biz Finder (local search) - Customers can look up more than 10 million businesses and services, including ATMs, restaurants, hotels, Wi-Fi hotspots and gas stations, and easily navigate to them with the click of a button. * Business reviews and ratings* - Before they head to a restaurant or make a reservation at a hotel, users can now see how it was rated and reviewed by other people. Users can sort by highest to lowest rating to help them make a decision, or view all of the search results on a map. TeleNav GPS Navigator also allows customers to rate restaurants themselves - directly from a mobile phone. * Real-time traffic alerts and one-click rerouting -TeleNav GPS Navigator monitors each specific route and will proactively search every five minutes for traffic congestion or incidents. Customers will be alerted, both audibly and on-screen, and can choose to find a faster route to their location by pressing just one button. * Fuel Finder - TeleNav GPS Navigator includes updated gas prices for local gas stations, and provides driving directions to the station with the lowest gas prices. Now, with just one click, friends and colleagues can share locations of these stations with each other as well.** Full-color 3D moving maps - Just like an in-car navigation system, the 3D maps turn, move and stop along with the driver, while also displaying a realistic image of the streets the driver is approaching and passing. Users can also pan and zoom around the map to view surrounding streets. * Spot Marker - Users can mark waypoints to help find their way back to a location or to record points of interest. * Pedestrian Mode -TeleNav GPS Navigator can also be used while walking, to help guide customers through crowded downtown streets or back to a parked car. * My Favorites - Customers can save as many addresses as needed for easy access and directions later. "GPS technology on mobile phones is surpassing standalone GPS devices," said Dr. HP Jin, president, CEO and co-founder of TeleNav. "Not only does TeleNav offer the convenience of GPS navigation on mobile phones, but we include numerous features that are not offered on separate, expensive navigation systems."The new version of TeleNav GPS Navigator (v. 5.2) is available immediately on select phones. The service is offered to customers for $9.99 per month for unlimited use. Current customers using TeleNav GPS Navigator on supported phones can access the new version by re-downloading TeleNav GPS Navigator. For more information on which phones support the new version, please visit www.telenav.com. *Currently only available on TeleNav GPS Navigator v. 5.2. About TeleNav Inc. TeleNav, Inc., headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, was the first company to launch a GPS navigation system on mobile phones in the United States. TeleNav is a global leader in wireless location-based services (LBS), including GPS navigation, Mobile Resource Management (MRM), asset GPS tracking (AVL) and local search. The company's flagship product, TeleNav GPS Navigator(tm), is comparable to in-car systems found in luxury vehicles, but offers a superior experience with functionality such as automatically updated maps and business locations, full color 3D moving maps, traffic alerts and one-click rerouting, speech recognition, Wi-Fi hotspot finder, lowest price fuel finder and more.v
Sear
Sweden - How to use Google Maps as a Tourist Agency
location based services
(post by Robert de Heer)VisitSweden.com - Thinking of visiting Sweden this summer? The most easy way to find more info on this country, is using the country-website VisitSweden.com. Like many other country-websites, also this one has had a map-application online. Recently, Margareta Björnberg and Tommy Sollén of VisitSweden.com decided to change their current paid-for map-provider for the free Google Maps-solution. Not just because of pricing, but also because of what you all can do with Google Maps, and not with other providers. They have now implemented many points-of-interest, in an easy clickable way to use. This is how all Tourist Agencies should use their website to allow visitors to quickly see, what all can be done in a country.
Labels: EuroMapsMania.com, Sweden
posted by Robert Jan de Heer @ 4:00 AM 0 comments links to this post
0 Comments:
Monday, June 11, 2007
Mobile Handsets Positioned to Radically Change the Navigation Device Market
US : Mobile phone operators now have the ability to market a downloadable navigation application that is just as good as, if not better, than personal navigation devices (PNDs), reports In-Stat. As a result, handset-based mapping and navigation applications could cause a major change in the overall navigation market, which is now dominated by relatively expensive standalone devices, the high-tech market research firm says. “Unlike MP3 players and digital cameras, handset-based navigation applications provide the only low-cost alternative product in a market of growing popularity,” says David Chamberlain, In-Stat analyst. “The value proposition for handset navigation applications is very strong compared with that of PNDs and, in some ways, the functionality is superior.”Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
Cellular operators whose service is based on CDMA (and iDEN) have an advantage over other mobile operators in nearly every region of the world, largely because of the A-GPS technology originally driven by mandates to support E911 services.
In-Stat surveys of US subscribers find navigation applications have a strong ability to draw subscribers from other operators and keep them loyal.
The total number of mapping and navigation mobile phone subscribers could exceed 42 million worldwide by 2012.
Recent In-Stat research, Mobile Handset Navigation Applications May Threaten Global Personal Nav Device Market (#IN0703583MCM), covers the market for navigation/mapping services for mobile phones. It provides forecasts for subscribers and revenue for global mapping/navigation services by region through 2012. It includes extensive analysis of the consumer and business markets, current offerings for these services, with an outlook of the market’s potential.
US : Mobile phone operators now have the ability to market a downloadable navigation application that is just as good as, if not better, than personal navigation devices (PNDs), reports In-Stat. As a result, handset-based mapping and navigation applications could cause a major change in the overall navigation market, which is now dominated by relatively expensive standalone devices, the high-tech market research firm says. “Unlike MP3 players and digital cameras, handset-based navigation applications provide the only low-cost alternative product in a market of growing popularity,” says David Chamberlain, In-Stat analyst. “The value proposition for handset navigation applications is very strong compared with that of PNDs and, in some ways, the functionality is superior.”Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
Cellular operators whose service is based on CDMA (and iDEN) have an advantage over other mobile operators in nearly every region of the world, largely because of the A-GPS technology originally driven by mandates to support E911 services.
In-Stat surveys of US subscribers find navigation applications have a strong ability to draw subscribers from other operators and keep them loyal.
The total number of mapping and navigation mobile phone subscribers could exceed 42 million worldwide by 2012.
Recent In-Stat research, Mobile Handset Navigation Applications May Threaten Global Personal Nav Device Market (#IN0703583MCM), covers the market for navigation/mapping services for mobile phones. It provides forecasts for subscribers and revenue for global mapping/navigation services by region through 2012. It includes extensive analysis of the consumer and business markets, current offerings for these services, with an outlook of the market’s potential.
GPS and Galileo in Mobile Handsets
location based services
DescriptionHow long will it take before satellite positioning technology appears in mass market handsets? Berg Insight forecasts that more than 60 percent of all WCDMA devices sold in 2010 will have integrated GPS/Galileo receivers. The EU is most likely to follow the US and Japan in requiring high accuracy of mobile emergency calls from 2010 when the Galileo system will be operational. Demand is also driven by consumer applications such as navigation. Gain detailed insights about the complete GNSS value chain spanning from GPS/Galileo receiver developers and handset chipset vendors to handset manufacturers in this unique report.
location based services
DescriptionHow long will it take before satellite positioning technology appears in mass market handsets? Berg Insight forecasts that more than 60 percent of all WCDMA devices sold in 2010 will have integrated GPS/Galileo receivers. The EU is most likely to follow the US and Japan in requiring high accuracy of mobile emergency calls from 2010 when the Galileo system will be operational. Demand is also driven by consumer applications such as navigation. Gain detailed insights about the complete GNSS value chain spanning from GPS/Galileo receiver developers and handset chipset vendors to handset manufacturers in this unique report.
Send People Your Current Location (and Directions), Rate Local Restaurants Using TeleNav 5.2
location based services
2,232 Views
The most elaborate GPS software for cell phones is TeleNav, and it's also the longest running. I remember testing its turn-by-turn navigation with a Nextel phone back in the summer of 2004, the GPS-phone equivalent of the dawn of time. Today TeleNav introduces version 5.2, starting with Sprint customers first. It may sound like an incremental update, but it's really a whole new deal, with location sharing, business ratings and other fun stuff, plus a new user interface courtesy of frog design.
The main attraction is that you can now shoot your location to people who can then navigate to you if they have TeleNav. If they don't have TeleNav, they still get a text message with your position, plus a link to a map and "static directions". (Some carriers—ahem, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile—do not allow links in text messages, so TeleNav is coming up with a workaround for that.)
The other new feature is a directory of user-reviewed businesses, sorting local restaurants from highest-rated to lowest. Of course, you can give a rating of a restaurant yourself, directly from the phone. You can't write a full review from your phone just yet, but that may be an option for the highly opinionated very soon.
A combination of the two of these new features is an improved Fuel Finder: When you discover a place with the lowest gas prices, you can send it to your friends and family so they won't get totally screwed at the pump.
The new version is immediately available for a handful of Sprint handsets (LG 550 Fusic, Motorola KRZR K1m, Motorola RAZR V3m, Motorola SLVR L7c, Samsung M500, Samsung M610, Sanyo M1, Sanyo 6600 Katana, Sanyo 8400) and will cost $9.99 per month. – Wilson Rothman
From the press release:
...Subscribers can now send their current location to any other mobile phone that can receive text messages, creating a quick and easy way to meet with friends or co-workers while on the go. Customers can also share addresses of favorite businesses, including restaurants, hotels or movie theaters. With TeleNav's Fuel Finder feature, users can even send information on local gas stations with the cheapest prices for that day. Other new features include reviews and ratings for nearby businesses and the ability to rate restaurants directly from a mobile phone.
Location sharing—Now users have the ability to send their current location or the location of a nearby business to one friend or many friends all at once. This information can be sent from a mobile phone or from the "My TeleNav" account on www.telenav.com. TeleNav GPS Navigator users can quickly navigate to locations they receive using the service's turn-by-turn directions. Mobile users not subscribing to TeleNav GPS Navigator will receive a link to view a map and static directions on their phone.
Business reviews and ratings—Before they head to a restaurant or make a reservation at a hotel, users can now see how it was rated and reviewed by other people. Users can sort by highest to lowest rating to help them make a decision or view all of the search results on a map. TeleNav GPS Navigator also allows customers to rate restaurants themselves—directly from a mobile phone.
Fuel Finder—TeleNav GPS Navigator includes updated gas prices for local gas stations, and provides driving directions to the station with the lowest gas prices. Now, with just one click, friends and colleagues can share locations of these stations with each other as well.Other Current TeleNav features include:
• Voice and on-screen turn-by-turn driving directions• "My TeleNav" website access • Biz Finder (local search) • Real-time traffic alerts and one-click rerouting • Full-color 3D moving maps• Spot Marker • Pedestrian Mode
Home Page [TeleNav]
location based services
2,232 Views
The most elaborate GPS software for cell phones is TeleNav, and it's also the longest running. I remember testing its turn-by-turn navigation with a Nextel phone back in the summer of 2004, the GPS-phone equivalent of the dawn of time. Today TeleNav introduces version 5.2, starting with Sprint customers first. It may sound like an incremental update, but it's really a whole new deal, with location sharing, business ratings and other fun stuff, plus a new user interface courtesy of frog design.
The main attraction is that you can now shoot your location to people who can then navigate to you if they have TeleNav. If they don't have TeleNav, they still get a text message with your position, plus a link to a map and "static directions". (Some carriers—ahem, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile—do not allow links in text messages, so TeleNav is coming up with a workaround for that.)
The other new feature is a directory of user-reviewed businesses, sorting local restaurants from highest-rated to lowest. Of course, you can give a rating of a restaurant yourself, directly from the phone. You can't write a full review from your phone just yet, but that may be an option for the highly opinionated very soon.
A combination of the two of these new features is an improved Fuel Finder: When you discover a place with the lowest gas prices, you can send it to your friends and family so they won't get totally screwed at the pump.
The new version is immediately available for a handful of Sprint handsets (LG 550 Fusic, Motorola KRZR K1m, Motorola RAZR V3m, Motorola SLVR L7c, Samsung M500, Samsung M610, Sanyo M1, Sanyo 6600 Katana, Sanyo 8400) and will cost $9.99 per month. – Wilson Rothman
From the press release:
...Subscribers can now send their current location to any other mobile phone that can receive text messages, creating a quick and easy way to meet with friends or co-workers while on the go. Customers can also share addresses of favorite businesses, including restaurants, hotels or movie theaters. With TeleNav's Fuel Finder feature, users can even send information on local gas stations with the cheapest prices for that day. Other new features include reviews and ratings for nearby businesses and the ability to rate restaurants directly from a mobile phone.
Location sharing—Now users have the ability to send their current location or the location of a nearby business to one friend or many friends all at once. This information can be sent from a mobile phone or from the "My TeleNav" account on www.telenav.com. TeleNav GPS Navigator users can quickly navigate to locations they receive using the service's turn-by-turn directions. Mobile users not subscribing to TeleNav GPS Navigator will receive a link to view a map and static directions on their phone.
Business reviews and ratings—Before they head to a restaurant or make a reservation at a hotel, users can now see how it was rated and reviewed by other people. Users can sort by highest to lowest rating to help them make a decision or view all of the search results on a map. TeleNav GPS Navigator also allows customers to rate restaurants themselves—directly from a mobile phone.
Fuel Finder—TeleNav GPS Navigator includes updated gas prices for local gas stations, and provides driving directions to the station with the lowest gas prices. Now, with just one click, friends and colleagues can share locations of these stations with each other as well.Other Current TeleNav features include:
• Voice and on-screen turn-by-turn driving directions• "My TeleNav" website access • Biz Finder (local search) • Real-time traffic alerts and one-click rerouting • Full-color 3D moving maps• Spot Marker • Pedestrian Mode
Home Page [TeleNav]
NemeriX and Bosch Sensortec Partner To Deliver Revolutionary GPS Multi-Sensing Capability
location based services
STUTTGART, Germany and MANNO, Switzerland, June 11, 2007 - NemeriX, a leading fabless semiconductor company specialising in ultra low power semiconductors and solutions for GPS and location-based service devices, and Bosch Sensortec Gmbh, a leading supplier of MEMS sensors for consumer markets, today announced the successful integration of their technology to deliver a leading-edge multi-sensing GPS solution. The new system, which offers significantly enhanced results for navigating urban stacked road systems, multi-level bridges and tunnels, will be demonstrated at the Bosch Sensortec stand at Sensors Expo 2007 (12-13 June, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, Illinois, Booth #515).The innovative solution integrates the high-resolution Bosch Sensortec SMD500 pressure sensor with NemeriX's high-accuracy navigation solution, offering the ability to identify if a vehicle is travelling on the upper or lower levels in a multi-level or stacked road, and significantly enhancing turn-by-turn navigation in situations where traffic is travelling in the same direction on different levels of a road system, or where two-way traffic is accommodated. By enabling fast and accurate determination of altitude in a way that is not possible simply by tracking a user's speed or direction, the technology developed by NemeriX and Bosch Sensortec facilitates timely notification of approaching exits on stacked roads, and early detection of wrong exits when two roads are separating in almost parallel directions, but with different slopes - a very common situation in freeway "clover leaf" configurations.Even with high-performance GPS systems, typically the vertical accuracy that is achieved is significantly lower than the horizontal accuracy. This effect can be aggravated when the lower road is obstructed by the higher road, causing very high multipath that further degrades vertical accuracy. This new state-of-the-art solution enables the vertical performance to be significantly improved to the level where a typical road-to-road vertical distance of 10 meters or more can be unambiguously resolved. By combining high resolution barometric air pressure measurement data with non-biased, lower resolution GPS-derived altitude, the two companies have delivered a solution to the altitude conundrum within performance, cost, size and power consumption parameters that have not been seen before. The SMD500 pressure sensor developed and manufactured by Bosch Sensortec provides a very high degree of resolution in air pressure measurement while at the same time featuring very small package size and ultra low power consumption, as required for mobile devices."We are excited to see such an innovative application for our SMD500 air pressure sensor," commented Dr. Frank Melzer, CEO of Bosch Sensortec GmbH, located in Reutlingen, Germany. "This breakthrough solution developed by NemeriX is aligned with our strategy to provide innovative inertial and pressure sensing solutions for new applications, and also to improve existing solutions in the consumer electronics market. Based on our well-proven MEMS technology portfolio, we are continuously extending and refining our product line to serve the most demanding customers in the consumer markets."NemeriX Chief Technology Officer Lionel Garin said, "This solution will allow users to accurately navigate over-lapping road systems for the first time. Our technology offers the flexibility to meet the needs of today's GPS applications, while delivering the future of revolutionary multi-sensing capabilities for GPS navigation systems." About Bosch Sensortec:Bosch Sensortec GmbH, a 100 percent subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH, which is the global market leader for automotive sensors, offers micromechanical sensors, application, and foundry services for consumer electronics, security systems, and logistics. Its product portfolio includes triaxial acceleration sensors as well as pressure sensors. The company was founded in early 2005 and is headquartered near Reutlingen to the south of Stuttgart (Germany). For more information about Bosch Sensortec, go to: www.bosch-sensortec.com. Bosch has been active in the field of MEMS since 1988 and is one of the pioneers in this technology. Today, hundreds of engineers of the Bosch Group work in the field of MEMS. A wide product range from pressure and acceleration sensors to yaw-rate sensors is manufactured for the automotive industry. Annual production at Bosch amounted to more than 130 million MEMS sensors in 2006.About NemeriX (www.nemerix.com)Founded in April 2002, NemeriX S.A. (Manno, Switzerland) is a venture-backed fables semiconductor company specialising in ultra low power GPS and LBS integrated circuits, software and firmware for GPS and wireless applications. NemeriX's devices enable battery-power location determination anywhere, anytime, facilitating the design and manufacture of truly differentiated products for both consumer and professional markets. For more information about NemeriX, please visit www.nemerix.com.
Search WirelessDevNet for Related Items
location based services
STUTTGART, Germany and MANNO, Switzerland, June 11, 2007 - NemeriX, a leading fabless semiconductor company specialising in ultra low power semiconductors and solutions for GPS and location-based service devices, and Bosch Sensortec Gmbh, a leading supplier of MEMS sensors for consumer markets, today announced the successful integration of their technology to deliver a leading-edge multi-sensing GPS solution. The new system, which offers significantly enhanced results for navigating urban stacked road systems, multi-level bridges and tunnels, will be demonstrated at the Bosch Sensortec stand at Sensors Expo 2007 (12-13 June, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, Illinois, Booth #515).The innovative solution integrates the high-resolution Bosch Sensortec SMD500 pressure sensor with NemeriX's high-accuracy navigation solution, offering the ability to identify if a vehicle is travelling on the upper or lower levels in a multi-level or stacked road, and significantly enhancing turn-by-turn navigation in situations where traffic is travelling in the same direction on different levels of a road system, or where two-way traffic is accommodated. By enabling fast and accurate determination of altitude in a way that is not possible simply by tracking a user's speed or direction, the technology developed by NemeriX and Bosch Sensortec facilitates timely notification of approaching exits on stacked roads, and early detection of wrong exits when two roads are separating in almost parallel directions, but with different slopes - a very common situation in freeway "clover leaf" configurations.Even with high-performance GPS systems, typically the vertical accuracy that is achieved is significantly lower than the horizontal accuracy. This effect can be aggravated when the lower road is obstructed by the higher road, causing very high multipath that further degrades vertical accuracy. This new state-of-the-art solution enables the vertical performance to be significantly improved to the level where a typical road-to-road vertical distance of 10 meters or more can be unambiguously resolved. By combining high resolution barometric air pressure measurement data with non-biased, lower resolution GPS-derived altitude, the two companies have delivered a solution to the altitude conundrum within performance, cost, size and power consumption parameters that have not been seen before. The SMD500 pressure sensor developed and manufactured by Bosch Sensortec provides a very high degree of resolution in air pressure measurement while at the same time featuring very small package size and ultra low power consumption, as required for mobile devices."We are excited to see such an innovative application for our SMD500 air pressure sensor," commented Dr. Frank Melzer, CEO of Bosch Sensortec GmbH, located in Reutlingen, Germany. "This breakthrough solution developed by NemeriX is aligned with our strategy to provide innovative inertial and pressure sensing solutions for new applications, and also to improve existing solutions in the consumer electronics market. Based on our well-proven MEMS technology portfolio, we are continuously extending and refining our product line to serve the most demanding customers in the consumer markets."NemeriX Chief Technology Officer Lionel Garin said, "This solution will allow users to accurately navigate over-lapping road systems for the first time. Our technology offers the flexibility to meet the needs of today's GPS applications, while delivering the future of revolutionary multi-sensing capabilities for GPS navigation systems." About Bosch Sensortec:Bosch Sensortec GmbH, a 100 percent subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH, which is the global market leader for automotive sensors, offers micromechanical sensors, application, and foundry services for consumer electronics, security systems, and logistics. Its product portfolio includes triaxial acceleration sensors as well as pressure sensors. The company was founded in early 2005 and is headquartered near Reutlingen to the south of Stuttgart (Germany). For more information about Bosch Sensortec, go to: www.bosch-sensortec.com. Bosch has been active in the field of MEMS since 1988 and is one of the pioneers in this technology. Today, hundreds of engineers of the Bosch Group work in the field of MEMS. A wide product range from pressure and acceleration sensors to yaw-rate sensors is manufactured for the automotive industry. Annual production at Bosch amounted to more than 130 million MEMS sensors in 2006.About NemeriX (www.nemerix.com)Founded in April 2002, NemeriX S.A. (Manno, Switzerland) is a venture-backed fables semiconductor company specialising in ultra low power GPS and LBS integrated circuits, software and firmware for GPS and wireless applications. NemeriX's devices enable battery-power location determination anywhere, anytime, facilitating the design and manufacture of truly differentiated products for both consumer and professional markets. For more information about NemeriX, please visit www.nemerix.com.
Search WirelessDevNet for Related Items
u-blox Announces Free AssistNow® A-GPS Services
location based services
AssistNow is an off-the-shelf A-GPS service that boosts a GPS receiver’s performance, allowing it to compute a position almost instantly, even in difficult signal environments. A-GPS benefits all GPS-enabled applications, especially those that require "always-on" operability such as fleet management applications or GPS-enabled handheld devices, whose users wish to access location-based services instantly, regardless of signal conditions.Without A-GPS, a GPS receiver needs to locate at least four satellites in direct line-of-sight and then download their location data. This process takes 30 seconds under optimal signal conditions and can take much longer in adverse conditions such as those found in urban environments or indoor locations where GPS signals are weaker. AssistNow provides the GPS receiver with the data immediately, enabling it to quickly calculate a position.u-blox offers two easy to install and operate A-GPS services: AssistNow Offline and AssistNow Online. The Offline service provides assistance data that is valid for up to 14 days. Users can therefore enjoy boosted satellite acquisition performance for extended time periods and only need to connect to the Internet occasionally to update the assistance data. In contrast, AssistNow Online downloads new assistance data packets at every device start-up. These much smaller data packets are downloaded straight to the GPS receiver, making AssistNow Online ideal for applications without Flash memories such as mobile phones."We are delighted to offer our customers AssistNow Offline and AssistNow Online services free of charge,” said Karsten Tietz, VP Sales EMEA. "AssistNow, in combination with our unrivalled GPS receivers, brings users instant GPS acquisition and unmatched GPS performance in even the harshest signal environments. u-blox’ latest location solutions set new performance standards for the GPS industry at large".To find out more about AssistNow, visit www.u-blox.com/services/index.html
location based services
AssistNow is an off-the-shelf A-GPS service that boosts a GPS receiver’s performance, allowing it to compute a position almost instantly, even in difficult signal environments. A-GPS benefits all GPS-enabled applications, especially those that require "always-on" operability such as fleet management applications or GPS-enabled handheld devices, whose users wish to access location-based services instantly, regardless of signal conditions.Without A-GPS, a GPS receiver needs to locate at least four satellites in direct line-of-sight and then download their location data. This process takes 30 seconds under optimal signal conditions and can take much longer in adverse conditions such as those found in urban environments or indoor locations where GPS signals are weaker. AssistNow provides the GPS receiver with the data immediately, enabling it to quickly calculate a position.u-blox offers two easy to install and operate A-GPS services: AssistNow Offline and AssistNow Online. The Offline service provides assistance data that is valid for up to 14 days. Users can therefore enjoy boosted satellite acquisition performance for extended time periods and only need to connect to the Internet occasionally to update the assistance data. In contrast, AssistNow Online downloads new assistance data packets at every device start-up. These much smaller data packets are downloaded straight to the GPS receiver, making AssistNow Online ideal for applications without Flash memories such as mobile phones."We are delighted to offer our customers AssistNow Offline and AssistNow Online services free of charge,” said Karsten Tietz, VP Sales EMEA. "AssistNow, in combination with our unrivalled GPS receivers, brings users instant GPS acquisition and unmatched GPS performance in even the harshest signal environments. u-blox’ latest location solutions set new performance standards for the GPS industry at large".To find out more about AssistNow, visit www.u-blox.com/services/index.html
At&T Customers Sidestep Road Congestion With Telenav Traffic
location based services
ANTONIO, June 7, 2007 - AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) has announced that the AT&T wireless unit's customers now have direct access to traffic information and rerouting services through TeleNav Traffic(tm), offered initially on the BlackBerry(r) 8800(tm), BlackBerry Pearl(tm), BlackBerry 8700c and the new BlackBerry Curve(tm). TeleNav Traffic alerts users through voice and on-screen prompts to traffic slowdowns and incidents along their programmed travel route. With just one click, customers can choose an alternative route or can remain on the original course. TeleNav Traffic calculates and provides an ongoing estimated time of arrival based on the customer's current route and the latest traffic information. Subscribers can also view traffic information on a map and see details of surrounding traffic situations. TeleNav Traffic is a feature of the latest version of TeleNav GPS Navigator(tm) and is offered as a free feature upgrade for TeleNav GPS Navigator subscribers. TeleNav GPS Navigator v5.1 also includes enhanced business listings, which identify more retailers and office parks. The TeleNav GPS Navigator now allows BlackBerry users to click addresses inside calendar invitations or contact lists for real-time navigation to that location. "Traffic delays are one of the most fundamental and significant inhibitors to the productivity of mobile workers," said Laura Johnson, senior director, Wireless Enterprise Solutions, for AT&T. "Our new TeleNav Traffic offering will help companies by allowing employees in the field to get to clients faster and therefore potentially handle more calls each day, all of which will result in a higher level of customer service." According to Texas A&M University's 2005 Urban Mobility Report, the average person loses 47 hours a year in unexpected traffic delays, and the total travel delay in the U.S. from traffic congestion is 3.7 billion hours. Saving a few minutes on each trip can result in professionals - traveling executives, pharmaceutical representatives, salespeople, field technicians, insurance agents, transportation workers and realtors - closing another deal, delivering additional products or working another case. AT&T customers can receive turn-by-turn voice and on-screen driving directions with the award-winning TeleNav GPS Navigator service. TeleNav GPS Navigator can be used in vehicles or while walking and offers colorful 3-D moving maps. Other features of TeleNav GPS Navigator include: * Voice and On-Screen Turn-by-Turn Directions. As they drive, users get up-to-the-minute guidance and will automatically be rerouted if they miss a turn Users can also preview their routes before they begin driving and specify preferences, including highways and streets. * Easy Address Entry. Customers can either type in the address on the phone, plan their trips online or even call in an address using the unique speech-recognition service integrated into TeleNav GPS Navigator. Speech recognition allows users the ability to quickly input an address if they are already behind the wheel. * Biz Finder. Allows users to find businesses and services, ATMs, restaurants, hotels and gas stations and to navigate easily to them with the click of a button. Biz Finder also allows users to quickly look up and call the phone number for a business. * Fuel Finder. Allows users to save money by finding the lowest gas prices in the area. * Spot Marker. Helps users easily find their car wherever it is parked, such as in a large parking lot or on an unfamiliar downtown street. * Pedestrian Mode. Allows users to use TeleNav GPS Navigator while they are walking to help guide them on long walks or through crowded downtown streets TeleNav Traffic is supported in the 50 most populated cities in the U.S. For a list of these cities, visit http://www.att.com/Common/files/pdf/telenav.pdf. The BlackBerry 8800 includes built-in GPS capability for added convenience. BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry 8700c and BlackBerry Curve users require a Bluetooth(r)GPS Receiver accessory to activate GPS. To purchase, customers can visit any AT&T or Cingular retail store or go online to www.cingular.com. Current AT&T customers using TeleNav GPS Navigator on a compatible BlackBerry device can access TeleNav Traffic capabilities by conveniently downloading v5.1 from their wireless devices by visiting www.telenav.com. TeleNav GPS Navigator is available on a subscription basis at $599 for 10 trips and $9.99 for unlimited trips. An AT&T wireless data plan also is required.
location based services
ANTONIO, June 7, 2007 - AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) has announced that the AT&T wireless unit's customers now have direct access to traffic information and rerouting services through TeleNav Traffic(tm), offered initially on the BlackBerry(r) 8800(tm), BlackBerry Pearl(tm), BlackBerry 8700c and the new BlackBerry Curve(tm). TeleNav Traffic alerts users through voice and on-screen prompts to traffic slowdowns and incidents along their programmed travel route. With just one click, customers can choose an alternative route or can remain on the original course. TeleNav Traffic calculates and provides an ongoing estimated time of arrival based on the customer's current route and the latest traffic information. Subscribers can also view traffic information on a map and see details of surrounding traffic situations. TeleNav Traffic is a feature of the latest version of TeleNav GPS Navigator(tm) and is offered as a free feature upgrade for TeleNav GPS Navigator subscribers. TeleNav GPS Navigator v5.1 also includes enhanced business listings, which identify more retailers and office parks. The TeleNav GPS Navigator now allows BlackBerry users to click addresses inside calendar invitations or contact lists for real-time navigation to that location. "Traffic delays are one of the most fundamental and significant inhibitors to the productivity of mobile workers," said Laura Johnson, senior director, Wireless Enterprise Solutions, for AT&T. "Our new TeleNav Traffic offering will help companies by allowing employees in the field to get to clients faster and therefore potentially handle more calls each day, all of which will result in a higher level of customer service." According to Texas A&M University's 2005 Urban Mobility Report, the average person loses 47 hours a year in unexpected traffic delays, and the total travel delay in the U.S. from traffic congestion is 3.7 billion hours. Saving a few minutes on each trip can result in professionals - traveling executives, pharmaceutical representatives, salespeople, field technicians, insurance agents, transportation workers and realtors - closing another deal, delivering additional products or working another case. AT&T customers can receive turn-by-turn voice and on-screen driving directions with the award-winning TeleNav GPS Navigator service. TeleNav GPS Navigator can be used in vehicles or while walking and offers colorful 3-D moving maps. Other features of TeleNav GPS Navigator include: * Voice and On-Screen Turn-by-Turn Directions. As they drive, users get up-to-the-minute guidance and will automatically be rerouted if they miss a turn Users can also preview their routes before they begin driving and specify preferences, including highways and streets. * Easy Address Entry. Customers can either type in the address on the phone, plan their trips online or even call in an address using the unique speech-recognition service integrated into TeleNav GPS Navigator. Speech recognition allows users the ability to quickly input an address if they are already behind the wheel. * Biz Finder. Allows users to find businesses and services, ATMs, restaurants, hotels and gas stations and to navigate easily to them with the click of a button. Biz Finder also allows users to quickly look up and call the phone number for a business. * Fuel Finder. Allows users to save money by finding the lowest gas prices in the area. * Spot Marker. Helps users easily find their car wherever it is parked, such as in a large parking lot or on an unfamiliar downtown street. * Pedestrian Mode. Allows users to use TeleNav GPS Navigator while they are walking to help guide them on long walks or through crowded downtown streets TeleNav Traffic is supported in the 50 most populated cities in the U.S. For a list of these cities, visit http://www.att.com/Common/files/pdf/telenav.pdf. The BlackBerry 8800 includes built-in GPS capability for added convenience. BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry 8700c and BlackBerry Curve users require a Bluetooth(r)GPS Receiver accessory to activate GPS. To purchase, customers can visit any AT&T or Cingular retail store or go online to www.cingular.com. Current AT&T customers using TeleNav GPS Navigator on a compatible BlackBerry device can access TeleNav Traffic capabilities by conveniently downloading v5.1 from their wireless devices by visiting www.telenav.com. TeleNav GPS Navigator is available on a subscription basis at $599 for 10 trips and $9.99 for unlimited trips. An AT&T wireless data plan also is required.
Social Life 2.0: Plazes Tells You ‘Where It’s At’
location based services
Switzerland/Berlin, Germany, June 7, 2007 – Plazes – the leading online community merging physical location with online communication - today announced the official launch of its service. Plazes now offers its member community new opportunities to blend microblogging with actual physical presence information. “Where are my friends, what’s happening at my favorite place, and who will be with you tomorrow at the same location?” With Plazes, users can stay on top of the activities and plans of friends and family alike.With the official launch, Plazes introduces the new option of ‘Where will you be’ to its already rich capabilities. This allows Plazes users to easily coordinate future plans and activities. At plazes.com, members can see at a glance where their friends are ‘plazed’ and what’s happening at their location. They can also send a short message via cell phone or Internet and report live from their current location anywhere in the world.“Plazes gives you the unique chance to meet the right people at the right place at the right time,” said Stefan Keller, co-founder of Plazes. “Our new version offers powerful features that let our users know who else is at a particular location and what they are doing right now – or planning to do tomorrow. This makes coordination easier for everyone.”Plazes is not only about your whereabouts but also about your interests. With the new group function, geographically-close users with common interests can easily get together as well as stay on top of group activities with specific channels they can create.vAll this unique functionality can be integrated with other platforms as well: users can easily and automatically publish their ’Plazes Trazes‘ on MySpace® and Facebook® as well as their blogs.“Plazes works with different media - it is the only location-aware service which can be used worldwide and with any carrier,” noted Plazes co-founder Felix Petersen. “Plazes is available immediately for all users to explore and experience firsthand the power of merging the online and real-world aspects of their life into a single source of information.”About PlazesThe Plazes platform allows its community members to share their current location in real time, enhanced by instant communication updates through mobile, laptop, PC or Mac®. Users can publish information about their current and planned activities that integrates with their present, future and past locations - thereby creating a link between their real-world and online activities. The Plazes community is worldwide and passionate about creating new opportunities for real-world meetings as well as communicating with their online friends. Plazes is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland with a development office in Berlin, Germany. For additional information, please visit www.plazes.com.
location based services
Switzerland/Berlin, Germany, June 7, 2007 – Plazes – the leading online community merging physical location with online communication - today announced the official launch of its service. Plazes now offers its member community new opportunities to blend microblogging with actual physical presence information. “Where are my friends, what’s happening at my favorite place, and who will be with you tomorrow at the same location?” With Plazes, users can stay on top of the activities and plans of friends and family alike.With the official launch, Plazes introduces the new option of ‘Where will you be’ to its already rich capabilities. This allows Plazes users to easily coordinate future plans and activities. At plazes.com, members can see at a glance where their friends are ‘plazed’ and what’s happening at their location. They can also send a short message via cell phone or Internet and report live from their current location anywhere in the world.“Plazes gives you the unique chance to meet the right people at the right place at the right time,” said Stefan Keller, co-founder of Plazes. “Our new version offers powerful features that let our users know who else is at a particular location and what they are doing right now – or planning to do tomorrow. This makes coordination easier for everyone.”Plazes is not only about your whereabouts but also about your interests. With the new group function, geographically-close users with common interests can easily get together as well as stay on top of group activities with specific channels they can create.vAll this unique functionality can be integrated with other platforms as well: users can easily and automatically publish their ’Plazes Trazes‘ on MySpace® and Facebook® as well as their blogs.“Plazes works with different media - it is the only location-aware service which can be used worldwide and with any carrier,” noted Plazes co-founder Felix Petersen. “Plazes is available immediately for all users to explore and experience firsthand the power of merging the online and real-world aspects of their life into a single source of information.”About PlazesThe Plazes platform allows its community members to share their current location in real time, enhanced by instant communication updates through mobile, laptop, PC or Mac®. Users can publish information about their current and planned activities that integrates with their present, future and past locations - thereby creating a link between their real-world and online activities. The Plazes community is worldwide and passionate about creating new opportunities for real-world meetings as well as communicating with their online friends. Plazes is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland with a development office in Berlin, Germany. For additional information, please visit www.plazes.com.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
New Multi-Axis Gyroscope Improves Position Accuracy by Enabling Dead Reckoning for Portable Navigation Devices
location based services
Small Size and Low Cost Device Brings Advanced Features Typical of Expensive, Highly Accurate In-Vehicle Systems to Low-Cost Dashboard GPS Systems
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--InvenSense, Inc. (www.invensense.com), the leading provider of integrated motion sensing solutions for mobile applications, today announced the availability of the IDG-1004, the world’s smallest and lowest cost dual-axis gyroscope for the GPS portable navigation device (PND) market. The IDG-1004 enables dead reckoning (DR) and better map matching capability by measuring the direction of the vehicle with one axis, while providing better distance accuracy by measuring slope as the vehicle travels up and down hills or in rough terrain using the second axis.
The second axis of the gyroscope can also allow drivers easier installation by compensating for the angle at which the PND may be installed. Arbitrary mounting with a single axis gyroscope frequently results in lower accuracy. Furthermore, the X-axis and Y-axis sensing ability of the IDG-1004 makes it ideal for in-plane mounting on the main PND circuit board. Competing single-axis gyroscopes typically require a daughter board to be mounted perpendicular to the main PND circuit board since they measure only the Z-axis plane. This adds extra cost and manufacturing constraints.
“Sales of portable navigation devices are expected to top 25 million units worldwide in 2007,” said Richard Robinson, principal analyst, automotive electronics, with the market-research firm iSuppli Corp., El Segundo, Calif. “Enhancing location and direction accuracy to the levels of more expensive in-vehicle systems will be one of the next main goals of PND makers.”
The IDG-1004 gyroscope works with an accelerometer in a PND system to alleviate dead reckoning-related problems facing GPS-based systems today. Dead reckoning is the process of estimating one's current position based upon a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon measured velocity and heading. Using this technique, the loss or degradation of the GPS signal from tall buildings, tunnels or tree foliage can be compensated and the driver can have uninterrupted directional feedback. Using DR techniques, navigation systems can also achieve more accurate map matching where the system continually determines the path of a vehicle's route by comparing its DR path to the actual road layout.
“With the addition of the IDG-1004 gyroscope to our portfolio of image stabilization and motion sensing gyroscopes, we continue to be the first to provide the smallest and lowest cost multi-axis gyroscopes tailored for major consumer electronics markets,” said Dan Goehl, vice president of sales at InvenSense. “The in-plane sensing ability and dual-axis performance benefits makes the IDG-1004 gyroscope the perfect solution for the PND market.”
The IDG-1004 integrated MEMS dual-axis gyroscope provides superior vibration rejection, high cross axis isolation, shock tolerance up to 10,000g and a full scale range of 50º/sec. The device is packaged in a small form factor QFN package and is currently in mass production.
About InvenSense
InvenSense, Inc. is the leading provider of motion sensing solutions for mobile applications. The company’s motion sensing technology addresses emerging mass-market applications such as image stabilization, mobile navigation, location-based services and smart user interfaces that use hand motion and gesture-based commands. InvenSense corporate offices are located in Santa Clara, Calif. More information can be found at www.InvenSense.com.
INVENSENSE and the INVENSENSE logo are trademarks of InvenSense Inc.
location based services
Small Size and Low Cost Device Brings Advanced Features Typical of Expensive, Highly Accurate In-Vehicle Systems to Low-Cost Dashboard GPS Systems
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--InvenSense, Inc. (www.invensense.com), the leading provider of integrated motion sensing solutions for mobile applications, today announced the availability of the IDG-1004, the world’s smallest and lowest cost dual-axis gyroscope for the GPS portable navigation device (PND) market. The IDG-1004 enables dead reckoning (DR) and better map matching capability by measuring the direction of the vehicle with one axis, while providing better distance accuracy by measuring slope as the vehicle travels up and down hills or in rough terrain using the second axis.
The second axis of the gyroscope can also allow drivers easier installation by compensating for the angle at which the PND may be installed. Arbitrary mounting with a single axis gyroscope frequently results in lower accuracy. Furthermore, the X-axis and Y-axis sensing ability of the IDG-1004 makes it ideal for in-plane mounting on the main PND circuit board. Competing single-axis gyroscopes typically require a daughter board to be mounted perpendicular to the main PND circuit board since they measure only the Z-axis plane. This adds extra cost and manufacturing constraints.
“Sales of portable navigation devices are expected to top 25 million units worldwide in 2007,” said Richard Robinson, principal analyst, automotive electronics, with the market-research firm iSuppli Corp., El Segundo, Calif. “Enhancing location and direction accuracy to the levels of more expensive in-vehicle systems will be one of the next main goals of PND makers.”
The IDG-1004 gyroscope works with an accelerometer in a PND system to alleviate dead reckoning-related problems facing GPS-based systems today. Dead reckoning is the process of estimating one's current position based upon a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon measured velocity and heading. Using this technique, the loss or degradation of the GPS signal from tall buildings, tunnels or tree foliage can be compensated and the driver can have uninterrupted directional feedback. Using DR techniques, navigation systems can also achieve more accurate map matching where the system continually determines the path of a vehicle's route by comparing its DR path to the actual road layout.
“With the addition of the IDG-1004 gyroscope to our portfolio of image stabilization and motion sensing gyroscopes, we continue to be the first to provide the smallest and lowest cost multi-axis gyroscopes tailored for major consumer electronics markets,” said Dan Goehl, vice president of sales at InvenSense. “The in-plane sensing ability and dual-axis performance benefits makes the IDG-1004 gyroscope the perfect solution for the PND market.”
The IDG-1004 integrated MEMS dual-axis gyroscope provides superior vibration rejection, high cross axis isolation, shock tolerance up to 10,000g and a full scale range of 50º/sec. The device is packaged in a small form factor QFN package and is currently in mass production.
About InvenSense
InvenSense, Inc. is the leading provider of motion sensing solutions for mobile applications. The company’s motion sensing technology addresses emerging mass-market applications such as image stabilization, mobile navigation, location-based services and smart user interfaces that use hand motion and gesture-based commands. InvenSense corporate offices are located in Santa Clara, Calif. More information can be found at www.InvenSense.com.
INVENSENSE and the INVENSENSE logo are trademarks of InvenSense Inc.
Shop 'Til You Drop With Your Cell Phone, Says Sprint
location based services
The new search service lets shoppers locate products in 30,000 retail stores across the U.S.
By W. David Gardner InformationWeek Jun 7, 2007 11:53 AM
The cell phone as shopping assistant debuted Thursday as Sprint introduced a GPS-based mobile search service that enables shoppers to locate products in 30,000 retail stores across the U.S.
Also this week, a GPS-based "point and search" service in Japan was upgraded for use in several cell phone handsets.
While the two services are different, they are illustrative of the advanced technological functions that are that are being installed in mobile phones.
The Sprint service, which was developed by GPShopper and is called Slifter, calls for shoppers to punch in a keyword, product name, model number or UPC code of a desired product. The response targets the nearest retail store and availability, price, and promotional information are displayed.
"Sprint customers can use their phones to find the closest retailer to purchase a desired item, without needing to check a phone book, Internet listing or map," said George Ranallo, Sprint's director of wireless data applications, in a statement.
In Japan, the Mapion Pointing Application 2.0 upgrade release was announced. Developed by GeoVector Corporation of San Francisco and Mapion of Tokyo, the service already receives more than 700,000 daily page views.
Users simply point a cell phone at an installation -- it might be a restaurant or a store, for instance -- and pertinent information is displayed on the phone's display; restaurants can display their menus, for example.
"Users and advertisers can now connect based on the user's interest," said GeoVector president John Ellenby, in a statement.
The service is available on the KDDI network on CDMA-equipped phones offered by Casio, Kyocera, and Sony Ericsson. A spokesman for GeoVector said a key device in the Mapion service is a compass, which when coupled with GPS technology enables the service.
"GPS understands where the phone is and the compass understands what you are clicking at," the spokesman said, adding the service is likely to catch on as cell phone manufacturers increasingly add compasses to their devices.
The Sprint service is immediately available for the firm's data customers for an additional $1.99 a month. The firm has been in the vanguard offering GPS applications including local search and various navigation services.
Large retailers including Best Buy Co., Staples Inc., and Toys 'R' Us Inc. have listed tens of thousands of product identifiers with GPShopper. According to media reports, GPShopper collects a fee whenever a shopper clicks on a store's product.
location based services
The new search service lets shoppers locate products in 30,000 retail stores across the U.S.
By W. David Gardner InformationWeek Jun 7, 2007 11:53 AM
The cell phone as shopping assistant debuted Thursday as Sprint introduced a GPS-based mobile search service that enables shoppers to locate products in 30,000 retail stores across the U.S.
Also this week, a GPS-based "point and search" service in Japan was upgraded for use in several cell phone handsets.
While the two services are different, they are illustrative of the advanced technological functions that are that are being installed in mobile phones.
The Sprint service, which was developed by GPShopper and is called Slifter, calls for shoppers to punch in a keyword, product name, model number or UPC code of a desired product. The response targets the nearest retail store and availability, price, and promotional information are displayed.
"Sprint customers can use their phones to find the closest retailer to purchase a desired item, without needing to check a phone book, Internet listing or map," said George Ranallo, Sprint's director of wireless data applications, in a statement.
In Japan, the Mapion Pointing Application 2.0 upgrade release was announced. Developed by GeoVector Corporation of San Francisco and Mapion of Tokyo, the service already receives more than 700,000 daily page views.
Users simply point a cell phone at an installation -- it might be a restaurant or a store, for instance -- and pertinent information is displayed on the phone's display; restaurants can display their menus, for example.
"Users and advertisers can now connect based on the user's interest," said GeoVector president John Ellenby, in a statement.
The service is available on the KDDI network on CDMA-equipped phones offered by Casio, Kyocera, and Sony Ericsson. A spokesman for GeoVector said a key device in the Mapion service is a compass, which when coupled with GPS technology enables the service.
"GPS understands where the phone is and the compass understands what you are clicking at," the spokesman said, adding the service is likely to catch on as cell phone manufacturers increasingly add compasses to their devices.
The Sprint service is immediately available for the firm's data customers for an additional $1.99 a month. The firm has been in the vanguard offering GPS applications including local search and various navigation services.
Large retailers including Best Buy Co., Staples Inc., and Toys 'R' Us Inc. have listed tens of thousands of product identifiers with GPShopper. According to media reports, GPShopper collects a fee whenever a shopper clicks on a store's product.
The JetBlue point of view
location based services
Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 9:27 AM Posted by Brett Muney, Manager Product Development, JetBlueSummer is here again - a time when you, your friends and families start planning well-earned summer vacations. School is out, the sun is shining, and the weather is beautiful. To help you count down the minutes before you're wiggling your toes into the sand, JetBlue is now providing customers with Google Maps in all of its signature seatback TVs. Now everyone can enjoy a seat with a view: the new channel enables flyers to track flight altitude, speed, and location in real time on the way to any of JetBlue's 54 destinations.To celebrate, JetBlue is asking customers to get snap-happy with the "JetBlue Point of View" photo contest. Between June 5 and September 3, snap a few photos out the window at 35,000 feet, log your location by flipping to the Google Maps channel on your seatback TV, and then submit your favorite image to JetBlue. After September 3, the top 10 photographers will be rewarded with roundtrip travel for two anywhere JetBlue flies. Here's more information on the contest for your chance to win.
Google's street views have privacy advocates crying 'Don't be Evil'
location based services
Street-scene photographs added to Google Maps and Earth last week capture passers-by in delicate situations and have privacy advocates accusing the world's most popular Internet search firm of breaking its own "Don't be Evil" code.
Sponsored Links (Ads by Google)
Google Maps - Street maps & satellite images of your local area. maps.google.com.au
Download Earth, It's Free - Free download of Earth program See your house from space Get Earth Google.Earth.Googlepages.com
Free Satellite Map Tool - Using Earth Software you can view a Satellite Map of Anywhere, Free! satellite-maps.googlepages.com
Google's "Street View" feature weaves photographs into seamless panoramas of parts of San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami, and renowned technology Mecca Silicon Valley in northern California.
"With Street View users can virtually walk the streets of a city, check out a restaurant before arriving, and even zoom in on bus stops and street signs to make travel plans," Google said on its website. Privacy advocates counter that it also provides offensively candid glimpses of people unwittingly photographed while going about their daily lives. Pictures show what appears to be men urinating streetside. Young women are pictured in skimpy swimsuits sunbathing near Stanford University, the California alma mater of Google's founders. There is a picture of a man climbing a home's security gate, hopefully without criminal intent. People are pictured going into a pornography shop. A couple can be seen embracing on a sidewalk while another couple gets intimate on a bus stop bench. A homeless man pictured sitting with his dog on a street corner has reportedly died since the photograph was taken. Technology-centric Wired Magazine is asking online readers to vote for "the best inadvertent urban snapshots ... be they citizens flaunting the laws or hot dog vendors rocking a sweet style."
Sponsored Links (Ads by Google)
Earth Angel Ringtones 100% Free Music - Over 10,000 Tones Over 10,000 Tones - Free Offer!www.FunBox.com
Download Earth - Its Free View the entire Earth from space Free amazing download get Earth nowEarth.Free.GooglePages.com
Earth World View In 3D View The Planet As Never Before Stunning High Resolution ImageryNichier.com/Google/Earth.php
It is legal to photograph people in public places in the United States. "What Google does is not illegal, but irresponsible," said Rebecca Jeschke of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a US non-profit group dedicated to defending Internet freedom and privacy. "Google Street View technology has been an intrusion of privacy to many people captured in their pictures. They could have waited until they developed technology that would allow them to obscure peoples' faces." Miami abortion clinic director Elaine Diamond is troubled by a Google Maps picture showing protesters outside the facility. "I wish they would replace it," Diamond said. "I couldn't contact them. I tried quickly. It's not easy." Women visiting abortion clinics are under enough stress without adding fears that Google Maps might feature pictures of them entering or leaving the facilities, Diamond said. Operators of places such as drug, alcohol or sexual health clinics worry about protecting their clients from the stigma of being pictured in Street View. Google said it worked with shelters for battered women and children to avoid photographs endangering their visitors. "Everyone expects a certain level of anonymity as they move about their daily lives," EFF attorney Kevin Bankston told AFP. Google says photographs are taken down or replaced in response to complaints. "Street View only features imagery taken on public property," the Mountain View, California-based Internet titan said in its defense. "This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see walking down the street." Google's Street View has fans among those eager to explore places as an adjunct or replacement to travel. Google used a fleet of vans equipped with special cameras to amass 360-degree imagery of major US cities during the past several months and said it planned to add more urban areas to the Street View menu. Google said it intends to update the images regularly. "How long until this becomes live video?" technology entrepreneur and author John Batelle asked rhetorically. © 2007 AFP
» Next Article in Technology - Internet: Akamai Gives Free Peek at Internet
would you recommend this story?
location based services
Street-scene photographs added to Google Maps and Earth last week capture passers-by in delicate situations and have privacy advocates accusing the world's most popular Internet search firm of breaking its own "Don't be Evil" code.
Sponsored Links (Ads by Google)
Google Maps - Street maps & satellite images of your local area. maps.google.com.au
Download Earth, It's Free - Free download of Earth program See your house from space Get Earth Google.Earth.Googlepages.com
Free Satellite Map Tool - Using Earth Software you can view a Satellite Map of Anywhere, Free! satellite-maps.googlepages.com
Google's "Street View" feature weaves photographs into seamless panoramas of parts of San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami, and renowned technology Mecca Silicon Valley in northern California.
"With Street View users can virtually walk the streets of a city, check out a restaurant before arriving, and even zoom in on bus stops and street signs to make travel plans," Google said on its website. Privacy advocates counter that it also provides offensively candid glimpses of people unwittingly photographed while going about their daily lives. Pictures show what appears to be men urinating streetside. Young women are pictured in skimpy swimsuits sunbathing near Stanford University, the California alma mater of Google's founders. There is a picture of a man climbing a home's security gate, hopefully without criminal intent. People are pictured going into a pornography shop. A couple can be seen embracing on a sidewalk while another couple gets intimate on a bus stop bench. A homeless man pictured sitting with his dog on a street corner has reportedly died since the photograph was taken. Technology-centric Wired Magazine is asking online readers to vote for "the best inadvertent urban snapshots ... be they citizens flaunting the laws or hot dog vendors rocking a sweet style."
Sponsored Links (Ads by Google)
Earth Angel Ringtones 100% Free Music - Over 10,000 Tones Over 10,000 Tones - Free Offer!www.FunBox.com
Download Earth - Its Free View the entire Earth from space Free amazing download get Earth nowEarth.Free.GooglePages.com
Earth World View In 3D View The Planet As Never Before Stunning High Resolution ImageryNichier.com/Google/Earth.php
It is legal to photograph people in public places in the United States. "What Google does is not illegal, but irresponsible," said Rebecca Jeschke of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a US non-profit group dedicated to defending Internet freedom and privacy. "Google Street View technology has been an intrusion of privacy to many people captured in their pictures. They could have waited until they developed technology that would allow them to obscure peoples' faces." Miami abortion clinic director Elaine Diamond is troubled by a Google Maps picture showing protesters outside the facility. "I wish they would replace it," Diamond said. "I couldn't contact them. I tried quickly. It's not easy." Women visiting abortion clinics are under enough stress without adding fears that Google Maps might feature pictures of them entering or leaving the facilities, Diamond said. Operators of places such as drug, alcohol or sexual health clinics worry about protecting their clients from the stigma of being pictured in Street View. Google said it worked with shelters for battered women and children to avoid photographs endangering their visitors. "Everyone expects a certain level of anonymity as they move about their daily lives," EFF attorney Kevin Bankston told AFP. Google says photographs are taken down or replaced in response to complaints. "Street View only features imagery taken on public property," the Mountain View, California-based Internet titan said in its defense. "This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see walking down the street." Google's Street View has fans among those eager to explore places as an adjunct or replacement to travel. Google used a fleet of vans equipped with special cameras to amass 360-degree imagery of major US cities during the past several months and said it planned to add more urban areas to the Street View menu. Google said it intends to update the images regularly. "How long until this becomes live video?" technology entrepreneur and author John Batelle asked rhetorically. © 2007 AFP
» Next Article in Technology - Internet: Akamai Gives Free Peek at Internet
would you recommend this story?
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Wonde Proud Chooses NemeriX for Next Generation GPS Products
location based services
June 05, 2007
Company: NemeriXIndustry: GPSLocation: Manno, Switzerland
Wonde Proud Chooses NemeriX for Next Generation GPS ProductsHigh Performance GPS Solutions in New Generation of Handheld Devices Lead Development of Personal NavigationMANNO, Switzerland, 5 June 2007 - NemeriX, a leading fabless semiconductor company specialising in ultra low power semiconductors and solutions for GPS and location-based service devices, announced today that Taiwan-based OEM Wonde Proud Technology has selected NemeriX for its new generation of GPS personal navigation devices.The latest NemeriX solutions will be integrated into a range of Wonde Proud Personal Navigation Device (PND) mice so-called because they look much like a computer mouse. NemeriX technology is already built into four models currently available in the UK under the brands of Holux, OnNext and Polaris. European brands include Adapt, XAIOX and Oasis-Media. Depending on user preferences, handheld devices can receive location-based services from push or pull providers. Push providers broadcast information to PNDs of users who have elected to receive information from providers relevant to their personal interests for example film theatres, Chinese restaurants, and jazz clubs. A pull location-based service provider makes their information available to anyone who seeks to pull down (download) services from their PND.Wonde Prouds Director Marketing Mark Hu said, We chose NemeriX technology due to its superior low-power performance, high sensitivity and reliability. NemeriXs solutions are already in our CD100, CD110, BT77 and BT55 models, so this agreement marks a further strengthening of our partnership.We will also integrate NemeriX technology into our new models including the BT100X, CD150 camera detector, CD160 data logger, VT100 vehicle tracker plus NJ2020 later this year. We expect to produce up to 600,000 pieces in 2007. NemeriX VP of Marketing Lew Boore, said, NemeriX is focused on the delivery of low-power, high-performance GPS and A-GPS solutions that allow our customers to differentiate themselves, as well as provide consumers with the best user experience. We are proud to have Wonde Proud as a key partner.A number of organisations connected with the 2008 Beijing Olympics are said to be interested in Wonde Proud PND devices. Four models are already on sale in China under local brands.With the new generation of PNDs, people will be able to more rapidly and accurately pinpoint their position and request location-based services. These may be business facilities such as the nearest train station or WiFi-enabled café or a more personal benefit such as the nearest hairdresser or date-matching service. About Wonde Proud: Wonde Proud Technology is specialized in GPS navigation devices and CCTV surveillance equipment. Wonde Proud Technology has been one of the leading manufacturers of video processing of RF modulation and A/V transmission systems in Taiwan. With 12-years experience, highly competitive R&D team Wonde Proud Technology are now introducing the Wonde X GPS series into the existing navigation market. In addition, Wonde Proud Technology offers OEM/ODM services upon request. To find out more about Wonde Proud Technology, please visit www.wondeproud.com.About NemeriX: Founded in April 2002, NemeriX S.A. (Manno, Switzerland) is a venture-backed fables semiconductor company specialising in ultra low power GPS and LBS integrated circuits, software and firmware for GPS and wireless applications. NemeriXs devices enable battery-power location determination anywhere, anytime, facilitating the design and manufacture of truly differentiated products for both consumer and professional markets. For more information about NemeriX, please visit www.nemerix.com.
Susan Donahue (susan@firpr.com)Phone: +1 617 262 1960
location based services
June 05, 2007
Company: NemeriXIndustry: GPSLocation: Manno, Switzerland
Wonde Proud Chooses NemeriX for Next Generation GPS ProductsHigh Performance GPS Solutions in New Generation of Handheld Devices Lead Development of Personal NavigationMANNO, Switzerland, 5 June 2007 - NemeriX, a leading fabless semiconductor company specialising in ultra low power semiconductors and solutions for GPS and location-based service devices, announced today that Taiwan-based OEM Wonde Proud Technology has selected NemeriX for its new generation of GPS personal navigation devices.The latest NemeriX solutions will be integrated into a range of Wonde Proud Personal Navigation Device (PND) mice so-called because they look much like a computer mouse. NemeriX technology is already built into four models currently available in the UK under the brands of Holux, OnNext and Polaris. European brands include Adapt, XAIOX and Oasis-Media. Depending on user preferences, handheld devices can receive location-based services from push or pull providers. Push providers broadcast information to PNDs of users who have elected to receive information from providers relevant to their personal interests for example film theatres, Chinese restaurants, and jazz clubs. A pull location-based service provider makes their information available to anyone who seeks to pull down (download) services from their PND.Wonde Prouds Director Marketing Mark Hu said, We chose NemeriX technology due to its superior low-power performance, high sensitivity and reliability. NemeriXs solutions are already in our CD100, CD110, BT77 and BT55 models, so this agreement marks a further strengthening of our partnership.We will also integrate NemeriX technology into our new models including the BT100X, CD150 camera detector, CD160 data logger, VT100 vehicle tracker plus NJ2020 later this year. We expect to produce up to 600,000 pieces in 2007. NemeriX VP of Marketing Lew Boore, said, NemeriX is focused on the delivery of low-power, high-performance GPS and A-GPS solutions that allow our customers to differentiate themselves, as well as provide consumers with the best user experience. We are proud to have Wonde Proud as a key partner.A number of organisations connected with the 2008 Beijing Olympics are said to be interested in Wonde Proud PND devices. Four models are already on sale in China under local brands.With the new generation of PNDs, people will be able to more rapidly and accurately pinpoint their position and request location-based services. These may be business facilities such as the nearest train station or WiFi-enabled café or a more personal benefit such as the nearest hairdresser or date-matching service. About Wonde Proud: Wonde Proud Technology is specialized in GPS navigation devices and CCTV surveillance equipment. Wonde Proud Technology has been one of the leading manufacturers of video processing of RF modulation and A/V transmission systems in Taiwan. With 12-years experience, highly competitive R&D team Wonde Proud Technology are now introducing the Wonde X GPS series into the existing navigation market. In addition, Wonde Proud Technology offers OEM/ODM services upon request. To find out more about Wonde Proud Technology, please visit www.wondeproud.com.About NemeriX: Founded in April 2002, NemeriX S.A. (Manno, Switzerland) is a venture-backed fables semiconductor company specialising in ultra low power GPS and LBS integrated circuits, software and firmware for GPS and wireless applications. NemeriXs devices enable battery-power location determination anywhere, anytime, facilitating the design and manufacture of truly differentiated products for both consumer and professional markets. For more information about NemeriX, please visit www.nemerix.com.
Susan Donahue (susan@firpr.com)Phone: +1 617 262 1960
Location-based services will help with wireless growth
5 June, 2007By Vanessa HoIn marketing, it's all about location, location, location but in the world of technology the same is also true. The increase use of location-based services (LBS) technology in the enterprise space is growing in popularity, not only to help businesses with asset management, but also improve productivity.
"Over the past year and even the past few months we've seen a dramatic development where Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are taking a hold in wireless and WLAN devices and embedded GPS [have] spurred LBS," said Lawrence Surtees vice president, of communications research with IDC Canada.
He added that LBS applications have been around for a number of years in the consumer world but in the enterprise space, it's been predominately focused on asset control, vehicle fleet management, sales force automation and CRM systems.
"Commercial services [are the ones] that are [going to] make use of LBS in the wireless space," said Surtees. "LBS applications have taken a hold in its own right and in the U.S., LBS revenue forecast will go from just shy of $50 million in 2005 to $3 billion in 2010," he added.
Surtees was just one of the speakers at the MaRS Emerging Technology series event, held in Toronto, entitled: "Location! Location! Location! The Growing Market for LBS." LBS is about getting the right information or customized information to the right people at the right time.
Tyler Lessard, director of ISV alliances with Research in Motion (RIM) Ltd., said that another reason why LBS applications have gained in popularity is because users are ready for it.
"With the rise of SMS and wireless e-mail, people are now taking it for granted that they've got wireless e-mail. People are [now] waiting for the next wave of what else can I do with this device," he added.
The majority of enterprises are using LBS with their voice and data handhelds that have GPS embedded onto it to do such things as asset tracking. Mobile field service application followed a close second in terms of enterprise usage.
"There are many smart phones and PDA that now offer support for accessing GPS location. We are starting to see vendors not just build generic services and applications deploying GPS on cellphones [but] see a generation of tailored products for particular devices or for different types users," said Lessard.
The type of applications that enterprises are using LBS for include turn-by-turn navigation that alerts about traffic jams or even suggests restaurants to take clients to. As well, aside from asset management and field service automation, enterprises are using LBS for sales force automation, tracking employees on the road and industry specific services.
Verticals that can benefit the most from LBS include health care, real estate, government and the public sector.
But Lessard said there are some barriers to LBS adoption.
"[Companies] are worried about integration of the mobile system with corporate back-office systems and the cost of the mobile hardware and software is perceived as too high," he said.
To overcome some of those barriers, RIM relies on its channel partners such as Wallace Wireless to help companies realize the benefits of LBS.
"It's a process for the enterprise," said Rob Moffat, president and co-founder of Wallace Wireless. "We find that it takes customers about 18 months [after] using a Blackberry for email before they are ready to adopt any kind of new applications," he added.
In order to ease them into LBS, Moffat said he doesn't lead with it when talking to customers but instead leads with context sensitive information that's about getting the right information at the right time.
"If LBS applications are a piece of it then you can bring in LBS and often times the information is tied to a location and that's how LBS applications become a part of [the discussion]," said Moffat.
He added that right now LBS in the enterprise is in the early adopter phase and doesn't expect enterprises to fully embrace the technology at least for another three to five years because of all the privacy issues surrounding it.
"We find that people fears of being tracked are obvious but when you get to the executive level at large Fortune 100 companies they all want to be tracked and companies want to track them [because] they are going to places they not comfortable with and don't know a lot about them," said Moffat.
If there is a lesson to be learned from the emergence of LBS applications, Lessard said it's that enterprises are ready to turn their handheld computing devices into competitive differentiators to help them reduce cost and increase revenue.
5 June, 2007By Vanessa HoIn marketing, it's all about location, location, location but in the world of technology the same is also true. The increase use of location-based services (LBS) technology in the enterprise space is growing in popularity, not only to help businesses with asset management, but also improve productivity.
"Over the past year and even the past few months we've seen a dramatic development where Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are taking a hold in wireless and WLAN devices and embedded GPS [have] spurred LBS," said Lawrence Surtees vice president, of communications research with IDC Canada.
He added that LBS applications have been around for a number of years in the consumer world but in the enterprise space, it's been predominately focused on asset control, vehicle fleet management, sales force automation and CRM systems.
"Commercial services [are the ones] that are [going to] make use of LBS in the wireless space," said Surtees. "LBS applications have taken a hold in its own right and in the U.S., LBS revenue forecast will go from just shy of $50 million in 2005 to $3 billion in 2010," he added.
Surtees was just one of the speakers at the MaRS Emerging Technology series event, held in Toronto, entitled: "Location! Location! Location! The Growing Market for LBS." LBS is about getting the right information or customized information to the right people at the right time.
Tyler Lessard, director of ISV alliances with Research in Motion (RIM) Ltd., said that another reason why LBS applications have gained in popularity is because users are ready for it.
"With the rise of SMS and wireless e-mail, people are now taking it for granted that they've got wireless e-mail. People are [now] waiting for the next wave of what else can I do with this device," he added.
The majority of enterprises are using LBS with their voice and data handhelds that have GPS embedded onto it to do such things as asset tracking. Mobile field service application followed a close second in terms of enterprise usage.
"There are many smart phones and PDA that now offer support for accessing GPS location. We are starting to see vendors not just build generic services and applications deploying GPS on cellphones [but] see a generation of tailored products for particular devices or for different types users," said Lessard.
The type of applications that enterprises are using LBS for include turn-by-turn navigation that alerts about traffic jams or even suggests restaurants to take clients to. As well, aside from asset management and field service automation, enterprises are using LBS for sales force automation, tracking employees on the road and industry specific services.
Verticals that can benefit the most from LBS include health care, real estate, government and the public sector.
But Lessard said there are some barriers to LBS adoption.
"[Companies] are worried about integration of the mobile system with corporate back-office systems and the cost of the mobile hardware and software is perceived as too high," he said.
To overcome some of those barriers, RIM relies on its channel partners such as Wallace Wireless to help companies realize the benefits of LBS.
"It's a process for the enterprise," said Rob Moffat, president and co-founder of Wallace Wireless. "We find that it takes customers about 18 months [after] using a Blackberry for email before they are ready to adopt any kind of new applications," he added.
In order to ease them into LBS, Moffat said he doesn't lead with it when talking to customers but instead leads with context sensitive information that's about getting the right information at the right time.
"If LBS applications are a piece of it then you can bring in LBS and often times the information is tied to a location and that's how LBS applications become a part of [the discussion]," said Moffat.
He added that right now LBS in the enterprise is in the early adopter phase and doesn't expect enterprises to fully embrace the technology at least for another three to five years because of all the privacy issues surrounding it.
"We find that people fears of being tracked are obvious but when you get to the executive level at large Fortune 100 companies they all want to be tracked and companies want to track them [because] they are going to places they not comfortable with and don't know a lot about them," said Moffat.
If there is a lesson to be learned from the emergence of LBS applications, Lessard said it's that enterprises are ready to turn their handheld computing devices into competitive differentiators to help them reduce cost and increase revenue.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
